Walkthrough

Before you go any further, let me warn you: Dark Souls
is an extremely difficult game. In part, this is because
Dark Souls -- and Demon's Souls before it -- hearken
back to the days of "old school" classic gaming, when
you had a limited number of lives, and if you lost them,
you had to start all over again.

Dark Souls hasn't quite forsaken the modern clichés of
gaming to that extent: you don't lose your save file
just because you died one too many times. But dying does
cost you all of your souls, which are both your money
and XP, as well as a new value called humanity. You
still keep your items and your levels, and you do
receive one chance to make it back to the place you died
and recover what you lost.

The difficulty is not trite, however. It's not that the
enemies have an unfair advantage: they're just smart
little buggers. Many will block your attacks, countering
your ill-timed blows will deadly ripostes. Others may
not block, but will attack aggressively and demand
blocking on your end to survive. To beat these guys, you
need to be a smart little bugger yourself, studying each
foe's tricks and weaknesses while perfecting your
defenses and attacks. Dark Souls is tough, but this
makes success (when it does come) all the sweeter.

Though I may try to butter it up with my masochistic
love for this series, I don't want to deceive you. Dark
Souls is a game about dying. You play as an Undead
character to begin with, and you will almost certainly
die many more times as you play the game. But Dark Souls
is about learning from death as well. Enemy locations
are not randomized, so if you're ambushed from around a
corner in one life, you can bet that you're going to
want to block (or dodge, or attack, or cast a spell,
depending on your play style) as you come around that
corner in the future. Dark Souls is much like an IQ
test, an enormous exercise in pattern recognition and
awareness. It follows, of course, to say that Dark Souls
is a smart man's game.

I strongly recommend you buy the game, if you haven't
already. I refuse to support piracy, especially when it
comes to such an awesome and underrated game. I
foolishly chose to rent Demon's Souls from Gamefly, only
to spend as much to play it for months on end as I would
if I had simply purchased it. By the end, I had
completed the game twice with my main character and had
nearly collected every rare item the game had to offer.
I was addicted to the series. If you've played and
enjoyed Demon's Souls, you should know better than to
pass up this game. It was a first day purchase for me.

If you're not familiar with Demon's Souls... well, I
pity you. Imagine this game, but with a different
setting and a few minor gameplay differences. It's not
so antiquated that it's not worth playing, I assure you.
If you enjoy Dark Souls and can't get enough of it, try
going back and playing the original Demon's Souls. You
won't be disappointed.

SETTING

Demon's Souls took place in the land of Boletaria.
Under King Allant XII, the land entered into an age of
prosperity. However, this proved to be a product of a
dark ritual the king performed by channeling souls,
unintentionally awakening an ancient demon called the
Old One. The consequence was the appearance of a great
fog and demons in the world that feasted upon men's
souls, leaving those who survived soulless and mad. The
other kingdoms learned of this plight and sent warriors
to help Boletaria. Of these, one slain warrior was
revived by the Maiden in Black, keeper of the Nexus, and
sent back to Boletaria to slay the demons and retrieve
their souls.

Dark Souls takes place primarily in the land of
Lordran, a land liberated from the dragons using the
souls of the Lords. In the waning days of the Age of
Fire, the world is populated by the Undead, and the
world lies on the brink of envelopment by darkness. One
Undead, foretold of in prophecy, journeys from the
distant Undead Asylum to Lordran, presumably to save the
world from this darkness.

GAMEPLAY

Instead of returning to the Nexus, players can now
heal and level up at bonfires, and will likewise return
to the last bonfire they rested at if they die. Resting
at a bonfire now replenishes the player's Estus Flask,
granting the player 5 healings per excursion. This can
be increased by kindling. The Estus Flask can also be
reinforced by the Fire Keeper with a Fire Keeper Soul to
increase the healing it provides.

You can buy tools that will allow you to perform
certain functions at your bonfire that would previously
require NPCs, such as weapon repairing. There are still
NPCs to serve these functions, however.

There are no Demons' Souls to collect, but there are
still various ores to use to upgrade your weapons into
awesome sauce. The improvement system has been upgraded
to be easier to understand, and you can now improve
armor the same way as weapons.

Enemies will no longer turn around and go back to
their spawn points once they lose sight of you, but will
continue to pursue you indefinitely once you've attacked
them. This is compensated by the fact that resting at a
bonfire resets all enemies, making it a safe haven to
run to in times of danger.

New items include Gifts, items you can select for your
character during character creation. Most can be found
later in the game.

New and improved classes. Notable is the Depraved
class, which starts you with perfectly even stats and no
equipment beyond a club and a weak shield.

You can enjoy Dark Souls on Xbox 360 as well as PS3.
Demon's Souls was a PS3 exclusive.

HUMANITY

The "World Alignment" system has been thrown out. It
has been succeeded by (in my honest opinion) a superior
system. Now, performing various actions will add
humanity points to your count in the upper left corner
of the screen. As your humanity increases, you will get
more item drops from enemies. However, you can also
spend humanity to return to human form or kindle a
bonfire. You will drop all of your humanity upon dying,
along with your souls.

The Soul Form from Demon's Souls has been replaced
with the Hollowed Form. Unlike Soul Form, being Hollowed
doesn't cost you half your HP bar. However, it does have
its disadvantages. You can't summon other players into
your world, for example, and you can't kindle your
bonfires to improve their Estus payout. As mentioned
above, you can "Reverse Hollowing" at a bonfire to
become human again at the cost of 1 humanity point. The
advantage of Hollowed Form is that you can be summoned
by Human players into their worlds.

Humanity can be received by using "Humanity" items
found lying around, just as using the various "Soul"
items grants you souls. These may be dropped by enemies,
notably sewer rats. Humanity points can also be dropped
by enemies. Humanity is granted for helping to defeat a
boss in another player's world. Going to another
player's world with a red stone and killing them also
grants you humanity, but be warned: a new item allows
the victim to put a hit out on you and make your life
miserable. Also, you can only enter the world of a
player if they are in Human Form.

MAGIC

In Demon's Souls, only sorcery spell slots depended on
Attunement. Now, all spells (be they sorcery, pyromancy,
or miracles) receive slots according to Attunement. A
new type of magic has been added to the game: pyromancy.
The MP system from Demon's Souls is gone. Spells now
receive a certain allotment of uses per "day," which are
replenished at bonfires. Obviously, there are new
spells, though they are too numerous to name here.

Techniques

Press B/O and move the Left Stick in a direction
simultaneously to roll in that direction, using a chunk
of your stamina.

Hold B/O while moving to run, which will slowly
consume your stamina. Press B/O while running to jump.

Click the Right Stick (R3) to lock on to an enemy.
Your camera will focus on the target and you're
movements to left and right will now strafe around this
target. While locked on, you can move the Right Stick
left and right to change targets, or click again to
disable lock on. Useful when fighting one-on-one, but if
you're engaging multiple foes, it can make it difficult
to keep track of all of them. You'll also want to
disable this if you're trying to run away.

Wielding a weapon in two-handed mode (Y/Triangle)
increases the damage it deals by 50%. Also, wielding a
weapon two-handed eliminates the penalty imposed for
lacking the weapon's required skills. However, you'll
have to temporarily sacrifice your off-hand item slot.

Press RB/R1 and push forward on the Left Stick
simultaneously to kick. This doesn't damage enemies, but
does knock them back slightly. Useful when an enemy is
standing near a ledge... (With a rapier, you will
instead swipe with your weapon and backstep
simultaneously, which has its uses as well.)

Press RT/R1 and push forward on the Left Stick
simultaneously to perform a leaping attack. This will
close the distance between you and your target and deal
more damage, but you'll be open for a moment while you
fly through the air, so time this maneuver carefully.

Pressing RB/R1 immediately after performing a roll
allows you to perform a special rolling attack, which is
useful for closing in on enemies. You can do the same
thing after a backstep for an evasive attack. Finally,
you can press RB/R1 while running to launch a
far-reaching sprinting attack.

If you parry an attack with your shield, you can
quickly press RB/R1 to deliver a deadly counterattack.

If you are standing directly behind a humanoid enemy,
press RB/R1 to initiate a (usually lethal) backstab
attack.

Bows have a unique set of controls. First, to use a
bow, you must wield it two-handed (an obvious
requirement). You can do this by pressing the attack
button once with the bow equipped, or if it is in your
right hand, you can press Y/Triangle. Now you can aim
(or cancel aiming mode) by pressing LB/L1, and fire with
RB/R1 or RT/R2. LT/L2 will change the arrow type.
Alternatively, if the enemy is within lock on range, you
can lock on to them and fire without having to enter the
cumbersome aiming mode.

While descending a ladder, press B/O to slide down
quickly.

While falling, press RB/R1 to perform a plunging
attack, damaging enemies around you when you land if you
time it right. For large bosses, your character will
impale them from above and deal significantly more
damage than a regular falling attack... plus it looks
awesome.

Notes

Remember that your stamina recovers more slowly while
blocking. If you run out of stamina, you can be
immobilized and hit for HP damage, so don't let this hit
zero! You use stamina whenever you block a hit, attack,
roll, or backstep.

Movement speed will be reduced depending on the weight
you have equipped. At 25% of your limit, your movements
will be slowed slightly. At 50%, you will notice a
significant slowing. At 75%, you will be quite slow and
unable to roll. At 100%, you will be overencumbered and
barely able to move.

Save your "Soul" items for when you're at a bonfire or
store and can use the extra souls right away. Otherwise,
you could die and lose the souls you gain from using the
item. You may want to follow a similar policy with
"Humanity."

During a riposte or backstab attack, you are
invincible, but the invincibility ends at the exact
moment you regain control. This makes you less
vulnerable when taking out a crowd one by one in this
manner than you would expect to be.

Which hand you use to wield an item affects what you
can do with it. For example, a shield wielded in your
right hand will be used as a weapon, while one in the
left hand can be used only to block and parry.
Similarly, a weapon in the left hand cannot be used for
a light attack, but it can now be used to block as well
as deal heavy attacks. Magic implements function the
same in either hand.

If you kill an enemy with a critical hit, you receive
20% more souls. Critical hits add a percent value to the
attack's damage equal to the Critical stat of the weapon
used, and are more likely to receive them when
interrupting an enemy's attack or attacking from behind.
A riposte or backstab is always a critical hit, as is a
headshot with a bow.

Certain enemies and bosses have tails that can be
severed if you attack that area enough. Sometimes,
knocking off a foe's tail will result in an additional
item drop.

First off, every class in the game is viable and useful
in its own way. Even the Deprived arguably has its
merits. That said, some are better suited for beginners,
while some will be more satisfying for those who have
already mastered this game and veterans of Demon's
Souls.

Warrior
Difficulty: * (Beginner)
Stats: High STR and DEX; low ATN, INT, and FTH
Equip: Longsword, Heater Shield, Standard Helm, Hard
Leather Armor Set
Desc: A balanced fighter. With both high Strength and
high Dexterity, he'll deal out damage and be able to
use most weapons, but with low Faith, Intelligence,
and Attunement, he'll need some work if he's going to
use magic. Notably, he starts with good armor and the
Heater Shield, granting 100% nullification to physical
damage while blocking.

Knight
Difficulty: * (Beginner)
Stats: Very high VIT; Low INT
Equip: Broadsword, Tower Kite Shield, Knight Armor Set
Covenant: Way of White
Desc: The tank class. Starts with a lot of vitality
and heavy armor, but as a consequence of his equipment
he will be somewhat slow. He has decent stats all
around in other areas, and can easily pick up some
healing magic. Also a member of the Covenant of the
White from the get-go, which supposedly makes
connecting with friends easier and reduces invasions.

Wanderer
Difficulty: ** (Easy)
Stats: High DEX; Good RES; Low FTH
Equip: Scimitar, Leather Shield, Wanderer Set
Desc: A dexterity-based fighter. Focus on quickness
rather than defense. The Scimitar is a great starting
weapon, allowing him to quickly fell enemies before
they can retaliate. Also well-suited to learn magic
and already capable of using a bow. The wanderer's
evasion-based play requires more skill.

Thief
Difficulty: **** (Advanced)
Stats: Very high DEX; Good INT; Low VIT, END, and STR
Equip: Bandit's Knife, Target Shield, Thief Mask,
Black Leather Armor Set
Bonus Gift: Master Key
Desc: The thief is a quick but physically weak combat
class. His shield is weak when blocking and best for
parrying, while his knife's high critical damage makes
his ripostes and backstabs deadly. His good
Intelligence, Faith, and Attunement make him
well-suited to learn magic as well. He even comes with
a free Master Key, so you can pick something else for
your Gift. The thief is good in one-on-one combat, but
out of his element when fighting multiple foes.
Requires a lot of skill from the player, but can also
be very rewarding.

Bandit
Difficulty: ** (Easy)
Stats: High STR and END; Good VIT; Low INT and ATN
Equip: Battle Axe, Spider Shield, Brigand Armor Set
Desc: A hard-hitter with high STR and heavy weaponry:
that Battle Axe. Very strong in the early game, but
weak defensively with poor armor and shield, though
these are easily replaced. Requires significant
investment to learn magic, though miracles will be a
bit easier.

Hunter
Difficulty: *** (Intermediate)
Stats: High DEX; Good STR; Poor ATN, INT, and FTH
Equip: Shortsword, Short Bow, Large Leather Shield,
Standard Arrow x30, Leather Armor Set
Desc: A versatile fighter. Notably starts with a bow
and arrows, though you'll have to conserve those
arrows until you reach the first merchant in the
Undead Burg. While able to equip most basic weapons,
he is best with DEX-based ones. Well-equipped to adapt
to enemy weaknesses by using different weapons. Light
armor means high mobility but low ability to take a
hit. Needs work in the magic department if you want to
do any casting, though.

Sorcerer
Difficulty: **** (Advanced)
Stats: Very high ATN and INT; low VIT, END, STR, RES,
and FTH
Equip: Dagger, Small Leather Shield, Sorcerer's
Catalyst, Sorcerer Set
Spell: Soul Arrow
Desc: Starts with 30 uses of soul arrow, enabling him
to fell enemies regularly with his magic. With a
little more Attunement, he can stock another 15 uses.
This guy is killer with magic, but a killee in melee.
With low defenses and weapon skills, close quarters is
not a situation a Sorc wants to be in. Soul Arrow's
not much good at close range either. This caster is
good for magic experts. Just watch your back, and if
you get into trouble, use your high maneuverability to
hightail it out of there.

Cleric
Difficulty: ** (Easy)
Stats: High FTH; Good STR; low END, DEX, and INT
Equip: Mace, East-West Shield, Canvas Talisman, Holy
Robe, Traveling Gloves, Holy Trousers
Spell: Heal
Covenant: Way of White
Desc: Fairly free weapon selection makes the Cleric
decent in combat. With his high Faith and decent
Attunement, the Cleric is literally a Miracle worker.
His exploration abilities are greater thanks to his
Heal spell, allowing him to keep himself healed up
beyond the use of his Estus flasks. The Heal spell is
slower than an Estus Flask, so the latter is more
feasible in combat. Though he can heal more easily
than other classes, the Cleric's light defensive
armaments mean that he is still relatively vulnerable
to damage.

Deprived
Difficulty: ***** (Masochistic)
Stats: Average in everything
Equip: Club, Plank Shield
Desc: This class seems designed solely to challenge
the player. You start with nothing but a basic weapon
and shield, plus whatever gift you chose. That means
no armor or magic. On the bright side, the Deprived's
even stats mean he can use magic early and wield most
weapons, and you'll be able to grow him in whatever
direction you desire. Until you find some better
equipment, though, he'll be at a significant
disadvantage. Only recommended for true Dark Souls
masters who can't get enough of this game's
challenges.

Selecting a gift isn't as significant as class
choice, but it can still be useful. Every gift item
except the Master Key can supposedly be found in-game.

Goddess's Blessing
The Goddess's Blessing is a single-use consumable item
that completely heals your HP and any status ailments
you have. Can be useful if you get poisoned, as you
won't have access to poison-healing items early in the
game. Alternatively, you can save it for later in the
game when you have more HP to regain from this effect.
Not all that useful, as you get five free heals every
time you spawn.

Black Firebomb (x10)
This gift is made far sweeter by the fact that it
actually comes with ten bombs, not one (though nothing
in the gift selection screen seems to indicate this).
These items can be lobbed at enemies and will explode
into flame on impact. They are stronger than the more
common Firebombs you will encounter early in the game.
Good for taking down tough enemies and bosses more
easily. You can use this to beat the Asylum Demon
earlier than you normally would be able to, earning
you his weapon as a bonus reward.

Twin Humanities
Another single-use consumable item. This one gives you
two free humanity points. You can also trade it to
Snuggly the Crow for a Valuable Ring of Sacrifice.
Kind of useful, I guess, but you can also get these
for beating Black Phantoms.

Binoculars
A reusable item that allows you to zoom in on distant
areas. Cool idea, but I don't really recommend this
one. Not only is it rarely useful in practice, but you
can already get it early in the game, in the graveyard
near the Firelink Shrine.

Pendant
This item has no effect by itself. However, it
apparently has some significance to the story. It can
be traded to Snuggly for a Proof of Revenge. The
game's director apparently recommends this gift. Among
the various gifts, this is one of the most difficult
to obtain through gameplay.

Master Key
This item will open any "basic" lock, allowing you to
freely access some hidden areas. The Master Key won't
open every door, though, generally only those that
lead to hidden goodies. Without this item, you would
need to buy or find a key to open these optional
doors. You can't find a Master Key in the game, and as
far as gifts go, it's pretty handy. Do note that the
Thief has this item in his starting equipment, so
there's no point getting a second one.

Tiny Being's Ring
This ring, when worn, will increase your total HP by
about 5%. Contrary to what the gift menu seems to
indicate, this item does not heal you whatsoever. The
in-game item description, however, is accurate. As a
result, this item isn't nearly as useful as it
initially seems, but it's still somewhat useful.

Old Witch's Ring
This ring allows you to communicate with the Daughter
of Chaos. Without it, you will be unable to understand
her. Alternatively, you can just get it through
bartering with Snuggly.

Regardless of your character choice, you will begin
the game in a prison cell. A body will be dropped in
the room. Search this body for a Dungeon
Cell Key, which you can use to open the cell
door. That's one puzzle down.

Note that you do not yet have all of your character's
starting items. Currently, you have only your selected
class's starting armor, any gift items you received,
and a STRAIGHT SWORD HILT,
which is quite possibly the worst weapon in the game.

You also have the BLACK
SEPERATION CRYSTAL, which allows you to remove
other players from your world or return to your own,
and the DARKSIGN, which can be
used to return to the last bonfire (checkpoint) you
used, but at the cost of all of your humanity and
souls. This is the same thing that happens when you
die, which is all too easy to do in this game already,
so the usefulness of activating your Darksign is quite
limited.

The next hallway contains some automatic messages
giving you a tutorial of the game's basic controls. It
also contains a few enemies to practice on. These
docile Zombies will not attack you, so take your time
killing them. These guys drop 20 souls each. If you're
not sure how to fight... well, the instructions are
there on the floor, with onscreen "(A): Read message"
prompts and everything. This is the easy part of the
game, guys.

Another interesting thing to notice is that if you
take a look at your character's face (removing your
helmet if necessary) you'll see that you look just
like these creatures, because you're an Undead too.
Good thing too, considering how much dying you'll be
doing, but ideally you want to get back to human form
to improve item drop rates, allow you to summon other
players into your world, etc. Be warned: you'll lose
your human form again if you die and be back at square
one.

You'll come to a room with another docile Zombie in
the water and an exit to your right, leading to a
ladder. At the top of the ladder, walk outside and
you'll encounter a glowing sword stuck in the ground.
Interact with it to light your first BONFIRE and get your first
achievement or trophy, "Enkindle."
Interact with the bonfire again to heal yourself,
though I can't imagine how you could have taken damage
by now unless you jumped back down after you climbed
the ladder. Note that you can heal as many times as
you like at a bonfire, but when you do, all of the
common enemies you've killed will respawn (basically,
you'll lose your progress). You also respawn here when
you die.

When you're ready, open the large double doors ahead
and then RUN FOR YOUR LIFE to the doorway on the left
wall. When you get to about the middle of this area,
the Asylum Demon will drop down into the courtyard and
start swinging his club around, which will deal heavy
damage if it connects. You don't have the equipment to
fight this guy yet, so don't even try. As soon as you
pass through the left doorway, a portcullis will slam
down, preventing you from going back that way. (I
definitely do not recommend trying to beat the Asylum
Demon with just your broken sword, but if you somehow
manage to do it, you receive his weapon, DEMON'S GREAT HAMMER as a
bonus reward. If you chose Black Firebombs as your
gift, though, you can use these to take him down.
Otherwise, maybe try on your second playthrough?)

Down the hallway, there's another BONFIRE. Useful if that demon
got a hit in on you. To the left there's another
hallway, but this time there's a Zombie archer at the
end. To get past him, you'll need to duck into a path
on the left, where you'll see an item. This will be YOUR CLASS'S SHIELD. Go to
your menu to equip the shield in your off hand (all
Dark Souls characters are right handed, apparently).

Note that, like in Demon's Souls, the game does not
pause when you go to your menu, or when you press the
Xbox Guide/Playstation Home button. The only 100% safe
way to pause is to exit the game (which saves your
location and the current world state) or rest at a
bonfire.

Using this, you can block the archer's arrows and
make it down the hallway. The archer will run away,
allowing you to pick up the item he was guarding: YOUR CLASS'S MELEE WEAPON.
Again, what you get depends on your class. Now you can
run up the stairs on the left and finish that
bothersome archer, blocking his arrows with your
shield and finishing him off with your melee weapon.
Now that you're down with that nuisance, go ahead and
"traverse the white light," removing the foggy barrier
in front of you.

Turn left as you come out and you'll see that you're
now on the second floor of the area that contained the
initial Bonfire. There's nothing you can do to the
left due to a broken staircase, so head right, where
there are stairs going both up and down. Feel free to
go down the stairs and through a door to get back to
the bonfire and heal. When you're ready, ascend the
stairs BUT BE READY TO DODGE TO THE RIGHT as a heavy
metal ball rolls down upon you. This will smash
through the wall behind you and open up the cell of an
Undead who has nearly become Hollowed.

Turn around and enter the cell to talk to him. Answer
"yes" and he will give you an ESTUS
FLASK. This will give you 5 doses of healing,
which you can refill simply by resting at any bonfire.
You'll also get the "Estus Flask"
achievement/trophy. He'll also give you UNDEAD ASYLUM F2 EAST KEY,
allowing you to progress. You can kill this guy for a
few souls without penalty. Note that if you return to
this area later in the game, the knight will have
become a Hollow, and you will be able to fight him,
but it'll be a tough battle.

For now, you can head up the stairs, where a lone
Zombie with a sword awaits, again worth 20 souls. Use
the key to open the door behind him. Here you'll see YOUR CLASS'S ADDITIONAL ITEM, if
your class has one. Be careful, as there are two
Zombies with swords and one with a bow just around the
corner to your left. The white light leads to the boss
area, but first head into the room ahead if you want
to fight an Undead Soldier. This guy can block your
attacks with his shield and tear you up with his
swordplay, but if you can hit him when he's open and
bring him down, he's worth a good 50S. Nothing else to
do in here right now, so just head back.

Prepare for your first boss battle before you
traverse the white light. You'll be starting on a
platform above the battle area, and if you jump from
here and attack as you descend, you bring his health
down by quite a bit. You'll want to have your melee
weapon equipped to do this. You may want to press Y
(Triangle) to equip your weapon two-handed first,
which will increase the damage you deal. When you're
ready, traverse the white light.

BOSS: ASYLUM DEMON

The Asylum Demon is waiting in the courtyard below.
Quickly leap down from this platform and press the
weak attack button (RB) as you fall onto him, dealing
an awesome cinematic blow that'll bring him down to a
reasonable strength (even better if you switched to
two-handed mode). Don't stand up here too long,
though, or he'll smash the platform out from under
you.

Once you're on the ground, keep your distance and
avoid his huge swings. When he attacks, take advantage
of the opening to get up close and get in a few
swipes, then quickly dodge away before he recovers.
Avoid getting hit by rolling away from him when he
gets ready to swing his weapon. If you can't dodge, at
least attempt to block to mitigate the damage. A
single direct hit can really hurt you and will most
likely kill the more vulnerable classes outright. He
can swing horizontally and vertically, or even fly up
in the air and smash himself down, so don't get cocky.

If you die, you can recover your lost souls by
returning to the glowing spot where you died and
pressing A. Try not to die twice in a row though, or
you'll lose the hard-earned souls (and any humanity
points) you were initially carrying.

Once you finally bring this big guy down, you'll get
no less than 1000S and BIG PILGRIM'S
KEY. This will allow to open the next set of
double doors ahead, bringing you to the outside.
Congratulations on escaping the asylum!

You're not quite done here yet, though. On a path the
left, you'll find a corpse with SOUL
OF A LOST UNDEAD, which is worth 200 souls if
you use it, but be sure to save this for when you're
about to level up so you don't lose these free souls.

On the right of the path is a thin platform with a
nest on it. Here you'll meet Snuggly the Crow, the
replacement for Sparkly the Crow from Demon's Souls.
Here you can barter with Snuggly by leaving certain
items in her nest. Here's how it works: drop the
offered item by Snuggly's nest, then save and exit the
game. When you reload, your reward item will be
waiting in the nest itself. Note that you can only
trade each item once per playthrough.

Trade

Reward

Pendant

Souvenir of Reprisal

Rubbish

Titanite Chunk

Sunlight Medal

White Titanite Chunk

Dried Finger

Blue Titanite Chunk

Bloodred Moss Clump

Twinkling Titanite

Purple Moss Clump

Twinkling Titanite

Blooming Purple Moss

Twinkling Titanite x2

Cracked Red Eye Ord

Resist Curse Stone x2

Humanity

Ring of Sacrifice

Twin Humanities

Rare Ring of Sacrifice

Prism Stone

Demon Tianite

Dung Pie

Demon Titanite

Pyromancy Flame

Red Titanite Chunk

Pyromancy Flame

Red Titanite Scale

Egg Vermifuge

Dragon Scale

Sunlight Maggot

Old Witch's Ring

Sack

Demon's Great Hammer

Skull Laturn

Ring of Fog

Ring of the Sun Princess

Divine Blessing x2

Xanathous Crown

Ring of Favor and Protection

The only one of these barter items you could
conceivably have at this point is Twin Humanities, if
you chose it as your gift. Anyway, when you're done
here, head up to the end of the road for a scene. When
the scene is over, you'll be in Lordran territory, and
you'll earn the achievement/trophy, "Reach Lordran."

This is as close to a Nexus as this game has. It's
where characters you meet will gather, and there's a BONFIRE in the center. You
can talk to the man sitting near the fire for a little
info, and possibly a comment on your appearance if
you're in Hollowed Form.

Starting now, you'll be able to do the following
things at any bonfire: "Level Up," "Kindle," and
"Reverse Hollowing." "Level Up" allows you to spend
souls to improve your stats. For every stat point
gained, your level also increases by 1. Press
BACK/SELECT (depending on your console) to view what
each stat actually does. Note that every level
increases your defenses, so Resistance isn't as useful
as it seems, and it doesn't even affect your Magic or
Lightning Defenses. This boils down to a relatively
small defense gain, while other stats seem far more
useful. Resistance does help you resist poison,
though, so keep that in mind.

Focus on stats related to your play style: Endurance
and Vitality are "vital" to pretty much any character,
as they affect your Stamina Points and Hit Points
respectively. Magic users will all need Attunement (a
change from Demon's Souls), then Sorcerers and
Pyromancers (to a lesser extent) need Intelligence
while those who use Miracles will need Faith instead.
If you use heavy weapons (big swords, blunt weapons,
axes) focus on Strength, while if you use finesse
weapons (light blades, polearms, and bows) you should
prioritize Dexterity. Level up costs will increase
with each level, so try not to waste points if you
don't want to have to grind for souls.

"Reverse Hollowing" makes you human again at the cost
of one humanity point. In addition to making you a
pretty smoothskin, being human improves drop rates,
enables kindling, and allows you to summon other
players into your world to help you. The other thing
you can do to improve drops is to have a lot of
humanity points. Note that having humanity is not the
same as being human, and the item "Humanity" is not
the same as humanity points. The item will add 1 to
your humanity counter and heal you, but you may want
to save these, as you do not lose items when you die
like you do Humanity points.

The other option, "Kindle," is only available when
you're in human form. You can spend humanity to kindle
or "power up" a bonfire, allowing you to get 10 Estus
Flask uses each time you rest there instead of the
usual 5.

When you're done leveling, head up to the well and
retrieve HUMANITY from the
corpse. This item is note the same as humanity points
(which are shown in the upper left of your screen).
Rather, using the item gives you 1 humanity point and
some healing. However, you can keep the item if you
die, while you can lose the humanity points you
receive from using it (much like "Soul" items).

Next, head up the stairs and through the arch. You
should see several more arches; go through the
rightmost of them, which leads to 6 FIREBOMBS! This item, when
used, will throw a bomb at your target for heavy fire
damage. Make sure to lock on first (by clicking the
right stick, remember?) or it won't be very accurate.
It still has a rather limited throwing range.

Go back and enter the next arch to the left of the
rightmost one (in other words, the middle arch). Here
you'll meet Petrus, who will simply brush you off
initially. Speak to him a second time, and he'll offer
you a COPPER COIN. Speak
to him yet again, and he'll offer to enter you into
the Way of White Covenant. He'll then teach miracles
as well as the "Shrug" expression. Even if you refuse,
you'll still get the achievement/trophy, "Covenant: Way of White." If
you talk to Petrus through the menu, you will inquire
about his Undead mission, which he will be reluctant
to share. For a price equal to 100S times your level,
Petrus will share his mission with you. This is
obviously best to do now, before you get too high in
level.

Up the stairs to the right of Petrus, you'll find two
things of note. At the top of the stairs, there's a
corpse with SOUL OF A LOST UNDEAD
(worth 200S), and on the level below, an empty
elevator.

You can jump down the shaft, but note that it will
exit into a slightly harder area, and you'll probably
want to run home to your bonfire quickly. On the
bright side, there's a ton of useful stuff down here
in various chests: 4 CRACKED RED
EYE ORBS, which allows you to invade other
players' worlds; MORNING STAR, a decent heavy
weapon; TALISMAN, a Miracle implement; and
best of all, 6 HOMEWARD BONES, which allows
you to return to your last bonfire with souls and
humanity intact.

Near the chest with the homeward bone is a narrow
pass between wall and rock, allowing you to get out of
here. There's yet another chest down here with 4 LLOYD'S TALISMANS, an item that
prevents local Estus healing for a time. This may seem
useless, but remember that some enemies can use Estus
too (often at the most annoying times).

You can now jump down, but be ready to bolt up the
stairs to your left. This will lead to a flooded
shrine area, and by exiting via the front doorway,
you'll find yourself back at the bonfire, where you
can rest and cause the Skeletons following you to
disappear. If you do end up fighting the Skeletons
around here, be warned that they yield a whopping 0S
when killed.

Also, go back into the shrine (via the left arch) and
exit through the graveyard entrance. Then pass under
the arch on your left and look behind the pillar ahead
near the edge, where you'll find a body with a SOUL OF A LOST UNDEAD. On the
second floor of the shrine, there is another body with
another SOUL OF A LOST UNDEAD.
Again, these are all worth 200S.

If you're not comfortable fighting the Skeletons
yet, or if your class just isn't well-suited to
fighting multiple enemies early in the game, feel
free to come back to this section later and move on
to the bridge area.

Down by the Skeletons, there's a body on the edge
near the stairs I told you to run to. It's guards by
two more Skeletons (a sword and shield guy and a
greatsword guy), but it does have LARGE SOUL OF A LOST UNDEAD
(400S), which is awesome. If you get into trouble,
try luring the Skeletons up to the ledge by the
shrine. That way, if you die, you can safely
retrieve your souls.

A little further into the graveyard, but still in
plain sight of the stairs to the shrine, there is a
crumpled corpse with yet another LARGE SOUL OF A LOST UNDEAD.
I happened to run through as the Skeletons assembled
themselves, and once I was behind them, they didn't
notice me.

On a ledge on the left (with one way down near this
spot), you'll find an ambush of two more Skeletons,
but you'll also find a CADUCEUS
ROUND SHIELD (I don't remember there being any
shields in Trauma Center...). These guys are pretty
easy to kick off of this ledge if you're careful.

There is are two forks in the graveyard path.
Backtracking to the first fork, you'll find a WINGED SPEAR guarded by a
Giant Skeleton. There is also a path that connects
with the right path of the second fork. Here there
are four Skeletons, one Giant Skeleton and a sword:
ZWEIHANDER. I don't
recommend engaging the giant skeletons in battle,
but rather grabbing the items and fleeing.
Continuing further to the edge of the cliff (with
skeleton army in tow, no doubt), you can find a pair
of BINOCULARS. Hopefully
you didn't pick that as a gift item... for numerous
reasons.

The second left path leads to the Catacombs.
Entering the Catacombs for the first time will give
you 500S. I suggest you turn back now, as I will not
be covering that area yet.

To get here, climb the stairs leading up from the
bonfire area (toward the bridge, oddly enough).
Here, one Armored Zombie (30S) will be waiting for
you, and another will jump down from the stairs
above. You'll see an Undead Soldier ahead, but do
not approach him! The Armored Zombie above will hit
you with a nasty Firebomb.

Instead, ascend the stairs and take out that
bothersome bomber by kicking him off the ledge while
avoiding his firebombs. The Armored Zombie with an
axe on the ledge and another with a sword up on the
bridge stairs will likely join the fray. With these
guys defeated, you can head down and fight the
Undead Soldier unimpeded. Then you can take the SOUL OF A LOST UNDEAD from the
body he's guarding.

To get onto the lower platform on the bridge, you
have two options, both likely to kill you. Option
one is to try to jump the gap from the spot with the
body. The other is to fall from above, on the
opposite side of the bridge from where the
firebomber was. Either way, if you get onto these
hidden area, you can carefully strafe around the
pillars and reach a RING OF
SACRIFICE. This ring will keep you from losing
your humanity and souls upon death one time, and
then it will break. Save it for a truly dangerous
situation, I suggest.

The only way to get back on the cliffside is to run
and jump the gap to the place where the Undead
Soldier was. It would stink you have your bloodstain
stuck on that bridge, so get a good running start.

Now get up to the bridge proper via the stairs,
beating the Armored Zombie up here if you haven't
already. Go to the end of this little ledge for a
corpse with, surprise, a SOUL OF
A LOST UNDEAD. Next go into the bridge itself
(maybe this is actually an aqueduct?). Turn left and
kill the small Undead Rat here. Pillage the corpse
it was chewing on for a... SOUL
OF A LOST UNDEAD. A lot of these things
around, aren't there? Now turn around and go down
this tunnel. You can't open the gate here, so enter
the doorway on your left. The stairs here lead to
the Undead Burg area.

When you reach the top of the stairs, you'll
encounter a few Armored Zombies: one with a sword that
will attack you, and an axeman a bit further off. Be
careful as you approach the axeman, as a firebomber
waits around the left corner. Yet another Armored
Zombie, a swordsman, is inside the building on the
left, who may take notice of you as you fight the
firebomber.

There are some hidden goodies to get in this area.
There are three barrels stacked in a triangular
fashion near the bridge. Smash them and drop down
behind them to find a LARGE
SOUL OF A LOST UNDEAD. Drop down again to enter
a hidden area.

When you land, two Zombies will climb up from your
right and attack you. After killing them, go across
the bridge and into the next room. On your right is an
exit to another place where Zombies will climb up from
the right and attack. However, you can kill the first
two on the right easily by hitting their hands before
they can climb up. You'll also find a body with RUBBISH in this area.

Climb the ladder to get up to the wall above where
you first entered this area. At the end, there's a
corpse with HUMANITY, and a
place to drop down back to where you started. Now you
can go ahead and traverse the white light.

You'll emerge into a two-story house. Down here on
the first floor, there's a body with SOUL OF A LOST UNDEAD. Upstairs,
you can't yet cross the broken platform to your left,
so go up the stairs on your right. You'll get a
glimpse of a dragon, but he'll fly away. You don't
have to deal with him quite yet.

Further along this wall, there are several enemies
waiting to break through barricades. Three Armored
Zombies will attack you here, and one particularly
annoying Undead Soldier sniper will shoot at you with
a crossbow as you fight them. Once they're beaten, you
can go down to the room underneath where the sniper
was standing to find a WOODEN
SHIELD on the balcony.

The area where you just fought connects to a rooftop
guarded by two Undead Soldiers with spears. Before you
head that way, though, you may want to go back to
where the sniper was. There you'll find a bridge on
the left leading to a room wiith a BONFIRE.

If you used the bonfire, the enemies you just fought
will be revived, but you will have a much closer
checkpoint to return to if you die. When you start
from this bonfire, the sniper and the first sword-user
will be facing away from you, so if you move slowly,
you can sneak up on one and get an easy backstab kill,
though this will undoubtedly alert the other, and
possibly the two Armored Zombies below as well.

With this area clear, go to fight the Undead Soldiers
(the path to their rooftop is on your left as you
descend the sniper's stairs). These guys are very
annoying, as they block all of your hits with their
shields and will wait to strike until you lower your
shield or try to attack them. When they do attack, you
can quickly block to make them stagger and drop their
defenses, or you can dodge and strafe around to
backstab them.

Smash the boxes by rolling to reveal a set of stairs
leading down. There is one Armored Zombie axeman
hiding behind some furniture in the back corner. When
you approach, he will attack and smash through the
furniture, which will also leave him open to an
attack. The door directly in front of the stairs leads
to a balcony with a merchant who will sell you a
variety of useful items. Here you can get the Orange
Guidance Soapstone for just 100S, allowing you to
leave messages (hints for other players) and rate
messages left by others based on their helpfulness.

If your main weapon's condition is wearing out, you
can buy some Repair Powder to fix it back up. Just
make sure the weapon you want to repair is in your
right hand when you use the item. You may want to hold
off on buying the Repairbox, as you can buy it from
Andre of Astora in the next area, Undead Parish, for
2000S instead of 3000.

Other items you may want to save up for include the
Residence Key, which will unlock two doors in Undead
Burg: one optional area with a chest, which you can
also access with the Master Key, and a home in the
second area of Undead Burg with a sorcerer, which can
only be opened with this key. A Heater Shield is
another good investment if you don't already have a
shield that gives you 100% protection from physical
damage when blocking (not to mention its high fire
protection, useful against firebombs). You can get
various weapons including the Rapier and Spear, which
allow you to attack while guarding, and the Short Bow,
which will allow you to snipe foes from a greater
distance than your lock on range. Don't forget to buy
arrows to go with it, and equip them.

Back in the house, near where the axeman attacked
from behind the furniture, there is a second door,
ultimately leading to four regular Zombies (armed only
with swords) guarding a ladder. These guys are poorly
defended, but their combined aggressive attacks can
still be dangerous. You may be able to take some out
from afar if you've invested in a ranged weapon of
some sort.

At the top of the ladder is a roof with 10 THROWING KNIVES. These
items make for a good ranged attack option early in
the game, and you can buy more from the merchant. Note
that Throwing Knifes are equipped in the items slot,
not the weapon slot (which means you can equip your
shield, melee weapon, and throwing knives all at
once). There's no way to aim these like with the bow,
so they won't be very accurate unless you lock on
first.

From this rooftop, you should be able to see a
doorway below: the one you couldn't reach before due
to the broken walkway. You can reach it now with a
running jump from this rooftop. If you make it, you'll
land in the room above the place where an Armored
Zombie was waiting for you before. Go upstairs to
emerge onto a balcony. Turn right and go around the
edge of this balcony for a LIGHT
CROSSBOW and 15
STANDARD BOLTS. This weapon has a better damage
range than the throwing knife, but will require a
weapon slot. You still can't manually aim using the
crossbow. When you're done here, you can drop down
through the hole in the railing and make your way back
to the bonfire, rebattling the enemies that will have
reappeared if you've rested at a bonfire since your
last encounter with them.

Our next goal is the stone bridge leading away from
the bonfire area. You may notice that there are no
less than 3 Armored Zombies who will rain Firebombs
down upon you as you cross. You have two options for
dealing with these guys:

1.) Snipe them with the Short Bow from a safe
distance. You can hit two of them from the bridge
side. The last one can be hit from the wooden bridge
to the bonfire room.

2.) If you lack a bow or arrows, just run across the
bridge. This will allow you to evade the bombers for
now, but the disadvantage is that they will then drop
down and join the enemies attacking you in the next
room, which will make things very difficult for you.

In the room across the bridge, two Armored Zombies
with axes await you. To make matters worse, an Undead
Soldier will throw open the door and attack you as
well. Hopefully you were at least able to eliminate
the bombers, or they'll drop down and start throwing
bombs through the door the knight just opened, adding
up to a lethal dose of frustration. If you get
overwhelmed, you can always back out of the room and
across the bridge, forcing the enemies to come to you
in a neat little line. If the bombers are still up on
their platform, though, don't make the mistake of
trying to fight while still on the bridge.

When these guys are eliminated, go out the door that
was opened by the Undead Soldier. There's a set of
stairs and a house on the right. Start by clearing the
house of the Armored Zombie within. Then go into the
doorway to the left and open the chest for 5 BLACK FIREBOMBS, a real
find. These babies are even more deadly than your
run-of-the-mill Firebomb. The doorway to the right
leads to an Armored Zombie on a balcony.

Now head back outside and take the stairs to the side
of the house. At the top, you'll encounter a group
containing three Armored Zombies: a soldier, an
axeman, and a bomber. Take out the bomber before they
notice you with a ranged weapon if you can. When they
are dead, there are no less than four directions you
can go in: the ladder on the building behind you, the
house ahead, the tower on the left, and the stairs
leading down between the house and tower.

First let's take the ladder. This lead to the roof of
the house and the platform those bombers were
attacking from (there may still be one up here if he
didn't jump down or get sniped). There's a body up
here with SOUL OF A LOST UNDEAD.

Next, go back and climb the tower. There's a nasty
sniper up here that was going to make things very
difficult for you if you neglected to come up here and
kill him.

If you have either the Master Key or Residence Key,
you'll be able to enter the nearby home. There's
nothing of interest inside the building itself, but if
you go around to the back, you'll find a chest with 3 GOLD PINE RESINS. This area
also overlooks the stair path we're going to explore
next, if you want to take a small shortcut.

Whether you descend the stairs or take a shortcut
through the home, you'll have no less than 3 Undead
Soldiers with swords and one with a spear to deal
with, all at once. You can try to lure them into
fighting you one by one with ranged attacks, or you
can use a little trick to kill them all at once.
Simply run up the stairs behind the spearman. When the
soldier at the top rolls a flaming barrel down the
stairs toward you, simply drop down through the
opening on the left. You will evade the barrel, and
the enemies will all try to follow you and jump to
their deaths. You can then drop down from this ledge
to a small arch that will ultimately lead back up.

Be careful in this lower area, as you will also see a
Black Knight, who will be way stronger than you at
this point. Fortunately, he's facing away from you, so
you can slowly walk past his and not alert him. If you
want to try fight him, you can sneak up and backstab
him, but this won't be enough to kill him. He can
really smash through your defenses, so avoid his
attacks and try to get behind him for backstabs.

Itherian suggested an alternate way of taking this
guy down for archers: lure the Black Knight out, then
go climb the ladder to the roof where the firebombers
were. The Black Knight will be unable to climb the
ladder. Then, if you stand on the far left of the
bombers' platform, the Black Knight will stand
underneath you, allowing you to lock on to him and
bombard him with arrows. Make sure you bring a good
supply of arrows, as he will block about half of your
shots while he fidgets around trying to reach you.

Once the Black Knight is beaten, he will drop a good
600S and a TITANITE CHUNK.
You can also head back to his starting position, where
you can pick up the BLUE
TEARSTONE RING he was guarding. Alternatively,
if you just want the ring but don't want to fight the
knight, you can snatch the ring and then run for dear
life back to the last bonfire.

Either way, when you're ready, you can head up the
stairs in the last area leading to a sizeable tower.
The doorway on this level leads down to a really tough
knight guarding the entrance to a new area, so I don't
recommend that path just yet (that will be covered in
the Darkroot Garden section). First, let's head
upstairs to where there's another white barrier.
Before passing through, smash the nearby pots. One of
them contains a Crystal Lizard (1S), which you'll want
to kill for a chance at rare loot. He'll try to run
away and disappear, so don't let him escape! Be warned
that Crystal Lizards will not respawn once you kill
them, so you can only collect their valuable holdings
but once. For more information, see the Crystal Lizard
Location section.

Through the barrier ahead is a boss area, and you
won't be able to retreat once you enter (unless you
use an item like the Homeward Bone). The battle
doesn't start until you try to reach the other side of
the will, however. First, take the ladder on the side
of the white barrier doorway. There are two Undead
Soldiers up here, one with sword and shield and the
other has a crossbow. As soon as you come up the
ladder, they'll attack, so be ready to dodge forward.
Take both of these guys out, then slide down the
ladder and approach the opposite tower until the boss
appears.

BOSS: TAURUS DEMON

As soon as he leaps down from the tower, break off in
a run in the opposite direction. Your goal is to climb
back up that ladder before he can come along and knock
you off of it. From the top of the tower, you can
easily get in a plunging attack on him. Afterward, you
can run to the other side to lure him away from the
ladder, then head back to the ladder and repeat the
process to bring the Taurus Demon down. Don't stay up
on the tower too long though, or he'll jump up there
with you, and you'll have to lure him back down.

Alternatively, you can intentionally lure the demon
up to the tower to give yourself a large space to
fight him in. However, you may prefer fighting him on
the wall, if you want to attack from a range with a
bow or magic.

You should be able to beat the Taurus Demon with just
plunging attacks if you so desire. Be careful when
passing him on the bridge, though; if he's making a
side-to-side swing, he can hit you as you pass and
even knock you off the wall in certain areas.

When you defeat the Taurus Demon, you'll receive
1000S.

Enter the tower that the demon jumped down from, then
head down until you reach an area with a bridge and a
large balcony. Go down to the balcony and talk to
Solaire twice. The second time, answer yes to both his
offers to receive WHITE SIGN
SOAPSTONE, which will allow you to leave a
summon sign and allow another player to summon you
into his world. Solaire will also allow you to summon
him in specific areas, if you see his golden summon
sign.

Before you cross the bridge, be warned that when
you're about halfway to the enemies ahead, a dragon
will fly over and scorch you all. To get past, you
will want to be at full health, have a shield with
good fire defense equipped, and run at full speed
toward the enemies (if you are heavily equipped, you
might want to lower yourself to 25% of your max equip
load to maximize your speed). Avoid the archers and
aim for the wooden staircase to the right of them. If
the dragon reaches you first, try to throw up your
shield to minimize the damage. You should be able to
take one hit from his fire while all the enemies die,
but run down the staircase immediately, as you
probably can't take another hit like that.

Once you get down, you'll have a chance to recover:
the doorway leading downstairs will take you to a
ladder. Knock this ladder down and slide to the ground
to find yourself back at the bonfire from before. Now
you'll be able to take a shortcut between this bonfire
and the area just past the bridge with the dragon.

The other door in the room below the bridge will
allow you to pass under the bridge on the lower level.
You can slowly near on the right side of the two
pillars to backstab an Undead Soldier facing the left.
Another Undead Soldier with a spear will come around
the corner ahead, but you can easily kick him down
when he lowers his guard.

Now carefully walk along the path he came from to
find an entrance to a room with 3 Undead Rats. (These
guys are helpful because they can drop Humanity
items.) Block and evade their attacks to avoid being
poisoned, which would surely force you to head back to
your bonfire or face a slow and painful death. Also be
careful that they don't knock you back through the
entrance and off the ledge. When the rats are
exterminated, take the ladder to the left to reach
Undead Parish.

When you come to the top of the ladder, you can
either exit through the doorway or head up the spiral
staircase to the top of the tower where a Black Knight
awaits, this time with a greatsword. You can come back
to the Black Knight later if you wish, but it's
possible to kill him now, so I'll give a few pointers
in case you intend to do so.

The greatsword gives him high range and damage, so
dodge at all costs. The best way to evade most of his
attacks is to circle around him to the right (his
shield side) while blocking in case he nicks you with
his strike. This should allow you to consistently get
around to his back after he attacks for an easy
backstab. If you get hit once, there's a good chance
he'll hit you again before you recover and kill you,
so be very careful. If he does a vertical swing, he
can even hit you if you're on the stairs below. If you
beat him, your reward is, again, 600S and TITANITE CHUNK.

Whether you took the Black Knight on or not, you'll
be fighting another tough enemy in the next area at
the bottom of the tower: a giant plated boar called
Armored Tusk. The entrance to the Armored Tusk's
battle arena is guarded by an Undead Soldier with a
sword. Within, there are 6 Undead Soldiers guarding
the boar: 1 on your right with a spear, 1 in front of
the boar with a sword, 1 behind the boar with a sword,
2 with crossbows on the bridge above, and 1 with a
spear on the area connected to the bridge.

Of these, you can fight the one on the stairs and the
one to your right without alerting the Armored Tusk.
If he is alerted, he will charge at you and tear right
through your defenses. Furthermore, he is heavily
resistant to both physical and magic attacks. To beat
him, first go up the stairs to the right, where he
won't be able to reach you. Take out the spearman and
the two snipers up here, then grab 4 ALLURING SKULLS on the
far end of the bridge. By now, the Undead Soldier will
likely have spotted you and will shortly come up the
stairs to fight you. When he's dealt with, it will
just be you and the boar.

MINI-BOSS: ARMORED TUSK

One way to hurt this boar is to throw down an
Alluring Skull right underneath the bridge. He will be
lured to that point, allowing you to jump down on him
for a plunging attack. Alternatively, if you either
don't want to use the items or run out, you can try
luring him into the alcove created by the stairs
leading down, then roll out of the way. While he
cumbersomely turns himself around, you can climb the
stairs going up and you'll be on a platform two levels
above him: again, just high enough for a plunging
attack.

An alternate method is to stab this boar in the back:
the one place where there's a tiny hole in his armor.
Just get him to charge at you and roll out of the way
at the last possible moment to get him to turn his
back to you. With this method, though, you run the
risk of getting kicked in the face by his hind legs if
you hang around behind him too long.

One other possible method is simply to bait the boar
into charging into the fire by standing near the flame
and rolling out of the way at the last possible
second. The boar will die much more quickly by the
flame than by your melee weapons.

Yet another method of killing him is to get up on the
snipers' bridge and shoot at the boar with the bow,
aiming for his spine, which will evidently net you a
good bit of damage. This is the safest way to fight
him by far, if you have a bow and a decent supply of
arrows. Beating the Armored Tusk will yield 500S and
possibly a Fang Boar Helm.

With that annoying piggy beaten, you can head down
the stairs into the alcove mentioned earlier. A
regular Zombie will run away from you, but be on
guard: he's luring you into an ambush by two of his
colleagues on your left and right. Two more Zombies
await upstairs, and a third in a slightly lowered
section. This last Zombie is guarding a body with MYSTERY KEY. This will allow
you to free Lautrec of Carim in the church.

Up the ladder, there are two more Zombies. Also, if
you turn around, you'll see a corpse with an item that
you can reach by very carefully walking to it across a
wooden beam. The corpse holds LARGE
SOUL OF A LOST UNDEAD. There's another ladder to
mount when you make it back to the platform. The area
at the top contains a white light barrier for you to
traverse.

You'll find yourself on a bridge in familiar area. If
you look down below, you can see the area where you
fought Armored Tusk just below you. Go ahead and cross
the bridge, whereupon you will come to a fork. Head to
the right first to encounter your first Elite Undead
Guard. These enemies will give you 100S and
occasionally drop useful items, but they can be more
of a pain than the Undead Knights with spears.

You'll have to battle the Elite in a narrow
passageway, preventing you from getting behind him.
Furthermore, he is heavily defensive and will block
most of your attacks. On the bright side, he is
initially facing away, so you can easily sneak up and
backstab him to make the fight easier. If an Elite
points his rapier toward you while blocking, do NOT
attack or he will parry the hit and get a riposte on
you for deadly damage; instead, kick him to force him
out of this stance. The trick is to bait him into
attacking, then block the hit and hit him before he
can dodge away. As he tends to jump away when you try
to hit him, you can eventually get him to retreat into
the circular area he guards, where you'll be able to
trap him and prevent him from backstepping or get
behind him for a backstab after he misses. Your reward
for beating him is a KNIGHT
SHIELD, which notably offers 100% physical
protection.

Next you can return and take the opposite path. This
will lead to a room with an Undead Soldier with spear
in hand. Through the doorway, you'll encounter a
pincer attack: an Elite on the left, and another
spear-toting soldier on your right. If you back
through the hallway you just came through, you can
force them to come at you single file and make this
battle much easier.

There will be a side passage heading left, but
continue on the path forward for now as it will
shortly lead to a bonfire. First you must battle three
Undead Soldiers (two with swords, one with a
crossbow), then take the path on your right. After a
long bridge, descend the stairs to find a BONFIRE and a bridge to Sen's
Fortress, which is currently sealed. Below, however,
you can meet Andre of Astora, the first blacksmith of
the game.

Andre offers a host of useful services. First you can
buy items: a host of weapons, Titanite for upgrading
weapons, and some items allowing you to replicate
Andre's other services in the comfort of your own
bonfire. If you wanted to buy a repairbox, it is now
just 2000S, same price as the Smithboxes. You don't
have any embers with which to "Modify Equipment," but
you can "Reinforce Weapon" or "Reinforce Armor" with
Titanite Shards and a few souls. I recommend
reinforcing your favorite equipment to prepare for the
battles ahead. Andre will also repair your worn items
at a cost of souls. You wouldn't want your equipment
to break, would you? (Andre will also teach the
"Hurrah!" gesture.)

When you're ready, head back up to the church. You'll
have to fight the Undead Soldiers again if you used
the bonfire. Now, you can enter the church from here
and skip over the Elite Undead Guards to fight the
Heavy Knight, but first let's head back over the
wooden section of the bridge to where the last Elite
you fought was (or is). Deal with him and the Undead
Soldier on the opposite side if necessary, then take
the path on your right that you skipped before.

An Elite will come running out of the church as you
arrive. Deal with him, but be careful not to take the
fight into the chruch where more Elites await. In this
area, you can pull a lever to raise the gate leading
back to the beginning of the Undead Parish area. You
can also collect two items: a BASEMENT
KEY on the stairs by the gate and a HALBERD on the far side. The
Basement Key will allow you to enter the lower area of
the Undead Burg.

You can now enter the church and fight the Elites.
One with be waiting to your left to ambush you, but
you can draw him out without alerting the one ahead of
you so that you don't have to fight both at once. When
you're ready, engage the Heavy Knight. Before you
start fighting, make sure to lure him away from his
initial area, or a spellcasting enemy called the
Channeler will be shooting at you from above while
you're trying to fight.

MINI-BOSS: HEAVY KNIGHT

This particular Heavy Knight wields a mace and tower
shield, giving him both offensive and defensive
prowess. His attacks can really hurt you if you fail
to block them, but it'll be hard to return the favor
with his constant guarding. This guy's too big to
backstab, and while you can parry his hits (except his
shield bash), you can't get a riposte either. Thus,
the battle is a slow process of baiting his attacks,
avoiding them, and then counterattacking. What's
really annoying is that he'll chug an Estus Flask at
about 1/3 of his HP, and while this leaves him open to
attack, you're attacks most likely won't interrupt
him. Thus, the only way to stop his healing is to
finish him off first. When he goes down, he's certain
to leave you with a parting gift: TITATINE SHARD. That and
700S.

More importantly, he was guarding a FIRE KEEPER SOUL. This
item, when given to a Fire Keeper, will reinforce your
Estus Flask, allowing you to get more healing from
them. Don't try to "use" the soul from your menu!
You'll just consume it for souls and lose your chance
to upgrade your Estus Flask.

By taking the elevator on the left wall of the
church, you can return to Firelink Shrine. The Fire
Keeper is here, just downstairs from the bonfire. Talk
to her, and she'll reinforce your Estus Flask to Estus
Flask+1, which will now heal 400 HP instead of 300. If
you didn't explore the Graveyard before, this is a
good time to do it.

The addition of the elevator has also made it
possible to reach another item in the Firelink Shrine
area. Take the elevator up and roll of the platform
onto the top of the building you were just in (this is
easier to do on the left elevator). Head to the
mountainside on the right, and look toward the tall
building to your left. There's an extension you can
jump to, allowing you to reach the building. If you
head downstairs and around the ledge onto a nearby
roof, you can get UNDEAD
ASYLUM F2 WEST KEY. You can also go back up the
stairs to reach the crow's nest. If you curl up into a
ball and wait, the crow will take you to Undead
Asylum. You can then come back and forth freely to
trade items with Snuggly. Watch out for the Zombies
though: they have torches now, so you probably won't
want to go too far in just yet.

When you've taken care of business in the shrine,
head back up to the church. When you exit the
elevator, there'll be stairs on your left with a white
barrier, leading up to an Elite with a rapier. Further
on, the hall will enter into a room with a bunch of
Zombies and one Channeler. (You can also fight the
Channeler by sniping him from below. He'll shoot back
at you even if you're outside his normal range, unless
you get a headshot!) Note that the Channeler will not
respawn. The Zombies pose as much a threat as the
Channeler, so lure them into the hallway to reduce the
number you must fight at once.

There'll be three exits to this room. The left on the
far wall leads to a LARGE
SOUL OF A NAMELESS SOLDIER (1000S), while the
right will lead up the next boss. The one on the same
wall as the entrance will lead upstairs to an Elite.
Follow this path around further to reach a container
with a body, with HUMANITY
inside. There's also a breakable door, while leads
upstairs to the imprisoned Knight Lautrec of Carim.
You can open this gate with the Mystery Key. Talk to
him inside, and he will promise you a gift (you can
get it from him at Firelink Shrine).

Head back to the room with the Channeler and go up
the ladder in the right room. Go up another ladder to
reach a white barrier leading to the Gargoyle boss. If
you're in Human Form, you'll see Solaire's summon
sign, allowing you to summon him to help you in the
coming battle.

BOSS: BELL GARGOYLE x2

Walk to the center of the roof to make the first Bell
Gargoyle appear. He tends to swing side-to-side with
his halberd, so dodging backwards will allow you avoid
most of his hits. He can also fly up in the air, in
which case you can still hit him with knives or a
crossbow. Try to hit his tail as much as possible, as
knocking it off will cause it to drop a GARGOYLE TAIL AXE. Make sure
to pick this up!

When the first Gargoyle gets down to about half its
HP, a second Gargoyle will show up, and both will
start breathing fire. The advantage is that you will
have an opportunity to get behind them and hit them
while they're doing so. If you have Solaire with you,
he may either keep the other Gargoyle busy or help you
take down the one you're fighting. Note that the
second Gargoyle does not have a tail. Beating both
Gargoyles will earn you 1500S. You'll also get a
Sunlight Medal if Solaire survived the battle.

Now climb a couple of ladders to the top of the tower
and pull the lever there to ring the bell. This will
earn you the achievement/trophy "Ring
the Bell (Undead Chruch)." When you return to
the bottom, you'll meet Oswald the Pardoner, who will
pardon transgressions against your Covenant in
exchange for souls. You can also abandon a Covenant
with his services. He'll teach you the "Well! What is
it!" gesture as a bonus.

Now head back to the area where you first encountered
Solaire, just before the bridge with the dragon. Here
you can use the Basement Key to open the door that was
previously inaccessible, allowing you to explore the
lower area of the Undead Burg.

Descend the ladder, then go up the stairs and open
the door to unlock a shortcut to a more accessible
area of the Undead Burg. When you descend the stairs,
you'll encounter 3 Undead Attack Dogs. These little
monsters will leap at you with enormous speed and jump
away just as quick, giving you few opportunities to
hit them. You can kill these guys easily, however, by
luring them into the fire by the stairs.

Instead of continuing forward, jump down to the right
and head down this path instead. You'll hear a man
crying for help behind a door that you can only open
with the Residence Key bought from the merchant (no
using the Master Key this time). Free this Griggs of
Vinheim and talk to him; he'll now return to Firelink
Shrine where he'll teach sorceries. Also break a
barrel in the room for SORCERER'S
HAT, SORCERER'S CLOAK, SORCERER'S GAUNTLETS,
SORCERER'S BOOTS, and SORCERER'S
CATALYST.

Continuing down this back path, you'll encounter some
torch-wielding Zombies. Be warned that they have a new
rushing attack, and they have fire attacks that can
hurt you even if your shield nullifies physical
attacks. At the end of your path, your reward is a
corpse with TWIN
HUMANITIES.

Now return to the main path where you fought the
dogs. Walking past the doors on the left and right
will cause Undead Assassins to leap out of them. These
enemies are highly defensive, and will frequently
block and evade your attacks. When they extend their
knives toward you, do not attack, as they are certain
to parry and leap on your back to slit your throat
(basically a backstab attack). Naturally, they'll do
the same thing if you turn your back to them. Keeping
your distance isn't completely safe, as they can throw
knives at you.

The first door on your right, where one of the
assassins came from, contains MAIL
BREAKER. If you continue forward, you'll
encounter another 3 houses with Undead Assassins
inside, as well as 2 Undead Attack Dogs. You may want
to lure them away from this area so that you won't
constantly be hit by throwing knives by the Undead
Assassins in the distance while you're trying to fight
in melee.

Ahead, you'll see a white barrier leading to the
Capra Demon boss, but you'll probably want to wait on
that. First, head down the stairs on your right.

As you come down, you'll see an Undead Assassin
ahead. Be warned that another one is waiting behind a
wall on the left to ambush you. You'll see stairs
leading up on your left and an item ahead: LARGE SOUL OF A LOST UNDEAD.
The door to the depths on the right can't be opened
without first slaying the Capra Demon, so take the
stairs up. You'll encounter a lone Zombie archer
shooting down the stairs at you. When you get up,
you'll find yourself back in the aqueduct you came
through when you first entered Undead Burg. You can
open a door at the end to create a shortcut back to
Firelink Shrine.

In this shortcut, there is also a female merchant on
the other side of the bars, and she sells several
items that the male merchant doesn't offer. Notably,
she sells moss, which is the status healer in this
game. She's marginally useful now, but her mosses will
be invaluable in the poison-riddled Blighttown.

When you're ready (hopefully healed up at the
Firelink bonfire) go back to the white barrier to
fight the Capra Demon.

BOSS: CAPRA DEMON

This guy's fight is made considerably harder by the
presence of 2 Undead Attack Dogs. His first attack
will always be unblockable and deadly, so run to the
stairs on the left and pray he doesn't hit you, or
you'll most likely die and have to try again. From the
top of the stairs, you can walk out onto an arch that
the Capra Demon has trouble reaching (though you are
by no means invincible while standing up here). You
can now take out the two dogs by yourself, which will
make the fight considerably easier.

The difficulty of this fight comes largely from the
fact that you have to fight the Capra Demon in a space
that's no bigger than his attack range. From the top
of the archway, you can shoot the Capra Demon with
magic or ranged weapons, or make a plunging attack
from above.

The Capra Demon will usually slowly approach the
stairs, then run at you for his unblockable attack
where he swings both swords down. If he does this,
roll off the arch, then ascend the stairs again and
get back on the arch while he follows you down. Using
this technique, you should be able to avoid getting
hit entirely once those pesky dogs are gone. Beating
this demon will net you the KEY
TO DEPTHS and 1200S. If it wasn't obvious to
you, this key will open the door to The Depths.

Before you go to The Depths, note two things. First,
doing so will make Knight Lautrec disappear from
Firelink Shrine, so go get the reward he offered: a SUNLIGHT MEDAL. Second,
because Lautrec will disappear, you'll lose your
chance to learn an optional bit about Petrus. You've
probably noticed that his party has arrived, and that
he will soon depart with them.

Go speak to Petrus's comrades and hear all their
dialogue (you'll know you've done this when they start
repeating themselves). They will all depart after
this, and when Petrus says that he is about to leave,
he will no longer be there when you return. After you
leave and come back a few times, however, Petrus will
reappear. Talk to him to hear his thoughts on Rhea,
then go talk to Lautrec to hear some information on
Rhea. Finally, you can talk to Petrus to learn the
truth of the matter. This is only possible until you
enter The Depths and Lautrec disappears. Though it is
by no means essential, the information you gained here
will make a later event more understandable.

Note that you should generally speak to NPCs as many
times as you can until they start repeating
themselves, or you may miss certain NPC events (I'll
try to warn you if I know one is missable, like
Petrus's event that requires Lautrec).

The other thing you can do now is try to bring down
the red dragon on the bridge. You can do it whenever
you want, but this is the last section covering Undead
Burg, and it is entirely possible to beat him now, so
I'll tell you how to do it. Make sure you have a bow
and a good supply of arrows.

OPTIONAL BOSS: HELLKITE DRAGON

You'll notice that once you pass a certain place on
the bridge, he'll breathe fire all over the bridge and
probably kill you in one hit. To prevent this, you can
hide in the alcoves on either side of the bridge,
which block the fire.

First, you'll want to take off his tail to get the
bonus drop, Drake Sword. To do this, go down to the
lower section of the bridge (whereby you initially
reached Undead Parish). From the right side of this
level, you should be able to shoot his tail. After
taking 200 damage, the tail will come off and leave a
DRAKE SWORD.

To beat the dragon itself, you can shoot at its head
from the right alcove (the one by the staircase).
Every time you shoot, run out onto the bridge to
attack you, but you can avoid him by descending the
staircase until he goes away. Note that you should
make sure you have enough arrows to bring him down (he
has a little over 2000 HP), as he'll be fully healed
if you leave the area to restock your arrows. Once he
gets down to about 2/3 of his max HP, however, he'll
enclose himself in his wings while he's up on the
tower and heal himself. Hopefully, you'll be able to
whittle him down faster than he can heal up.

Alternatively, if you've already beaten the Titanite
Demon and reached Darkroot Basin, there is a glitch
that will kill the dragon with a single arrow.
Activate the bonfire at the bottom of the basin, then
run back to the Titanite Demon's chamber, up through
Undead Parish, and head for the tower where the Black
Knight with the greatsword was. From here, if you
followed the right path, you'll be able to see the
dragon. Shoot it once, and it will leap down onto the
bridge... but because the bridge isn't loaded, the
dragon will fall right through it and die! You can
recover its souls by heading down the ladder at the
bottom of the tower.

Your reward for beating him is 10000S.

If you beat the dragon, you'll also be able to pick
up a CLAYMORE and SOUL OF A NAMELESS SOLDIER
(600S) that he was guarding, and you'll be able to
open the gate to more easily access Undead Parish,
along with a BONFIRE.
When you've taken care of everything you intend to do
first, go ahead to the door leading to The Depths.

Once you come down the stairs, there's a LARGE SOUL OF A NAMELESS SOLDIER
right here on this floor. On the next floor down,
you'll encounter a couple of Zombies. There are 5 more
Zombies down the next set of stairs (some wielding
torches), so don't let yourself get surrounded; keep
the fight on the stairs if necessary.

When you descend the stairs, you'll be greeted by an
old friend: the Undead Attack Dog. You'll also see a
guy cutting meat on the table ahead. This is not an
NPC, but a Butcher! If you approach him, he and a
nearby Undead Attack Dog will become aggressive. I
didn't have much trouble with the butcher. Just evade
when he swings his cleavers at you, then run behind
him and backstab him a couple of times. You might also
try ranged attacks (or magic) after evading. Behind
the area where the butcher was is a chest with LARGE EMBER. This is a big deal:
the ember, when given to Andre, will allow you upgrade
weapons further, to +10 instead of +5.

From here, you can walk down into the water. There
are 2 Undead Attack Dogs and a Zombie here, but
thankfully they won't attack until you draw near
(though the water will slow you down). You can climb
up through a hole in the wall. Just your luck, though:
a Butcher drops down to fight you in this corridor.
Deal with him, then go through the door on your left.
Here, the pyromancer Laurentius of the Great Swamp is
trapped in a container, and he rants about how he'll
be eaten for lunch. Free him by rolling into the
barrel containing him to avoid damaging him. He'll be
grateful and head to Firelink Shrine when you leave.
When he gets there, he will give you a free PYROMANCY FLAME if you don't
have one already. If you do have one, you can trade it
to Snuggly the Crow before you first talk to him to
get his Flame for free. Laurentius will also teach you
pyromancy spells and upgrade your Pyromancy Flame.

Now head back to the area with the second Butcher and
go on to a small room with a tantalizing item on your
left. BE CAREFUL! There is a Slime on the ceiling
waiting for you to go for this item so it can drop
down on you and kill you. Foil this beast's plot by
shooting it down if you can, or otherwise walk under
it and immediately roll away. Once it's on the ground,
the Slime is a slow attacker and it's not very hard to
avoid or block his attacks. However, it's defense is
high, so it'll take a while to bring down, and all
that hard work nets you exactly 0S. On the bright
side, he was guarding that SOUL OF
A NAMELESS SOLDIER, which is worth 800S.

In the next room, all you have to worry about is one
little Torch Zombie. In the hallway afterward, though,
there are no less than 6 Slimes on the ceiling and one
more Torch Zombie waiting for you at the end. Don't
let the slimes gang up on you, but try to take them
out one at a time. This is another good time to have
the Master Key, as it'll open the door ahead, which
leads to a +BONFIRE+. Otherwise, you'll need the Sewer
Chamber Key, which is coming up soon, so hang in
there.

Head down the stairs into a chamber from which you
can see a Giant Undead Rat just outside. Bet you're
excited to fight that thing. There's a ladder here
that leads down to a shortcut, but you'll have to open
a door from the other side first, so it does no good
now. For now, continue until you encounter 5 Small
Undead Rats munching away, ignoring you. Kill them
all, then take the GREATAXE
from the corpse one was nibbling on.

Ahead is an evil box that will burst open to reveal
an Undead Rat when you approach, so you should
literally be on your guard. Ahead and down the stairs
you'll find another 4 distracted rats munching away.
If you needed it, you can grab the SEWER CHAMBER KEY from
the body on the other side of the bars now and head
back to the bonfire room. There is a tunnel from this
corner, next to the stairs, which leads to a network
of tunnels.

In this network of tunnels, there are a couple of
drains that will drop you into the middle of the
Basilisk nest, which you don't want to happen. You can
always jump over them, but I'll try to lead you on a
path around them. Thus, instead of going right as you
come in to the tunnel network, head straight and pick
up a SOUL OF A NAMELESS SOLDIER.
Continue on to reach an open area with 3 Large Undead
Rats downstairs, 2 more to the left, and a small one
to right. The problem is that there's also a Channeler
to the left who will shoot at you with magic and buff
up the rat's strength to deadly levels. When you
dispose of the rats, you can take him down in melee
relatively easily, and he won't come back any more
once you finish him off. Your reward, hidden behind a
column at the end of the Channeler's path, is a LARGE TITANITE SHARD.

On the right, you can reenter the tunnel system. Take
the first right, kill a rat, then take the first left
and fight another rat. Now take a right, and you've
avoided all the drains without missing items or
enemies. There's a SOUL OF A
NAMELESS SOLDIER here, and just ahead, the
entrance to the Giant Undead Rat's lair.

MINI-BOSS: GIANT UNDEAD RAT

You'll notice that this guy has an axe stuck in his
eye, which might explain why he's so ornery. The
moment you enter, he'll rush at you and smack you
around, likely breaking your guard in seconds.

You can, however, take advantage of the fact that he
cannot fit through the area you just entered through.
By popping out of the doorway and sniping him, you can
whittle him down and avoid damage entirely, though it
gets annoying as he'll quickly run back to his
starting location (outside your range from the
doorway) the moment you leave his sight.

Also, remember that chute behind the Butcher I told
you not to use yet? Now's the time to use it. You'll
drop down to the ledge above the rat's domain, where
you can find the awesome SPIDER
SHIELD and, presumably, snipe the Giant Undead
Rat. You should also be able to perform a plunging
attack from this height. Killing the rat nets you 400S
and a guaranteed HUMANITY.

When you're done with the rat, or if you simply want
to run away from him, head to the end of this area and
slide down the water into the lower levels.

Where you come out, you'll see two paths. The one to
the right leads to the boss and Blighttown, while the
one to the left leads to an optional area filled with
nothing but Basilisks. There are some items (and a
boatload of souls) to get on the left path first, but
before you go, I must warn you that Basilisks are very
different from any enemy you've faced thus far, and
they can make life very easy or very difficult for
you.

First the good news: Basilisks have no physical
attacks, and weak defenses. This means you can wield
your weapon two-handed to bring them down faster. Now
the bad news: Basilisk breath will turn you to stone
and kill you instantly if you stand in it for more
than a second or two, and if you're right in front of
the basilisk when he exhales, you'll probably die.
Before unleashing their deadly breath, Basilisks will
either puff up like bullfrogs or jump up in the air
and shoot a little squirt of breath, both indicators
to keep your distance.

Finally, the ugly news: if you're turned to stone,
you'll face a fate worse than death. You'll be cursed
when you revive, which will permanently halve your
health until you get it cured (by either using an item
that cures Curse or visiting the Pardoner and paying
humanity). To avoid being cursed by Basilisk Breath,
you'll want to be in Human Form, which increases curse
resistance. Finally, to end things on a good note,
Basilisks drop 200S apiece when killed. There are
approximately 10 Basilisks in this area, and they
respawn, so this can really help you save up to beat
Gaping Dragon.

Kill the first enemy, then take the stairs on the
left path and head through the narrow doorway on the
right. There'll be 2 Basilisks on the left, and one on
the right. From here, head left (into the lair of 3
more Basilisks) for a LARGE SOUL
OF A NAMELESS SOLDIER. Now turn around and go
through the tunnel (fighting 3 more Basilisks) to
reach a hidden area with some impressive treasure, HUMANITY and the RING OF THE EVIL EYE.

At some point during this exploration, you may be
invaded and attacked by a certain Red Phantom: Kirk,
the Knight of Thorns. You will be notified that your
world has been invaded with an on-screen message, and
attacked shortly after. This works similarly to when
another player invades your world, except that Kirk is
computer-controlled. Fight him like any other NPC,
blocking and countering his attacks and backstabbing
if you see fit. Note that Kirk's unique armor causes
him to deal damage just by rolling into you. When he
goes down, he should drop BARBED
STRAIGHT SWORD, though I'm not certain at this
time whether this is guranteed drop.

When you're done with those pesky Basilisks, head
back out of the lair and follow the opposite path,
where you'll encounter a mixed-size group of 4 Undead
Rats. In the next area, you'll find 2 Undead Rats and
3 Slimes (one on the ceiling). Across from where you
entered is a shortcut that will let you return to the
ladder area near the bonfire once you open the door
from this side. Also in this area, near the Blighttown
entrance, is a merchant named Domnhall of Zena, who
notably sells Gold Pine Resin, which temporarily buffs
your weapon with lightning damage. Dragons are stated
to be weak to lightning, and you ARE about to face a
dragon...

Finally, by the right Undead Rat, there's a path
leading up to a huge arena. Turn sharp to the right
and head downstairs to approach the Gaping Dragon's
lair. When you descend, pass the second set of stairs
and pick up the HEAVY
CROSSBOW and 11 HEAVY
BOLTS. If you've acquired the White Soapstone
from Solaire and freed Lautrec, you can summon both to
your aid to fight the Gaping Dragon. Trust me, you'll
need them.

BOSS: GAPING DRAGON

You may notice that this dragon's entire body is a
giant mouth full of many lairs of teeth. One of his
attacks is to drop that thing onto you, so don't stand
directly in front of him. Don't stand to the side
either, or he'll swipe you with his claws. You can
stand behind him to attack his tail, but if he notices
you doing this, he can hit you with a tail swipe too.
You WILL want to cut his tail off though, so that
he'll drop DRAGON KING
GREATAXE.

If you ever end up in front of him, break your lock
on and run away immediately or he'll eviscerate you.
You usually don't need to be locked on (as there's no
blocking most of his attacks), so you may not want to
even lock on in the first place to maximize your
running away ability, though this will make camera
control a bit more tricky.

Note that when the dragon slams his mouth down, he
may decide to change into his charging mode and charge
forward if someone is in front of him when he lands.
If so, good news for you: you can follow behind and
swipe at his tail without concern, until he finishes
folding his body back up. He also occassionally will
spit acid that will cover the whole stage: get out of
this stuff as quick as possible, as it will corrode
your armor and weapons as well as slow you down.

By this point, Lautrec and Solaire will likely have
gotten themselves killed, so the dragon's attention
will be fully on you. He has few ranged attacks,
though, so you can pretty safely keep your distance
and run for the corpse on the left side of the arena,
which holds STANDARD HELM, HARD
LEATHER ARMOR, HARD LEATHER GAUNTLETS, and HARD LEATHER BOOTS. If you
don't feel comfortable being exposed for a second
while you pick these up, you can just wait until after
the battle.

Your best bet is to attack him from a range where he
can't reach you, but be careful you don't walk
backwards and fall off the edge. If you run out of
ranged options, you can use my technique. Get just
close enough that he slams his mouth down, then run
away. Stand in front of him for a second so he'll
decide to charge, then run to the side and out of his
path. Then you can run up and hit him for one or two
combos from behind. Without his tail, he won't be able
to tail swipe effectively, so he'll have to turn
around to hit you when he recovers. He will turn
around by flying up in the air and trying to land on
you, so run the moment he flies up.

Bringing down this very difficult foe will grant you
25000S (!) and BLIGHTTOWN KEY.
Pat yourself on the back for this one.

Head back to Domnhall (the merchant) and you'll be
able to use the key you just earned to open the double
doors next to him, leading to Blighttown. Make sure
you pack mosses to cure poison and toxic, as you'll be
encountering plenty of both. You may also want to skip
ahead and revisit Undead Asylum. Using the Undead
Asylum F2 West Key, you can open the door there that
was locked before, allowing you to reach the Rusted
Iron Ring, an item that will allow you to move at full
speed even in the swamps of Blighttown.

When the doors to Blighttown open, you'll come to an
enormous hole in the floor, so don't blindly charge in
an fall to your death. Instead, head around to your
left, where you can slide down a very long ladder to get
into the core of Blighttown. Follow the wooden path
until you encounter an ogre-like creature, the Infected
Barbarian. This enemy swings a hefty club that can
poison you, but fortunately he's rather slow and easy to
get behind for a backstab. He'll usually drop Dung Pies
when killed, which will inflict toxic damage on both you
and your target. Not that great, but how useful do you
expect fecal material to be? You'll encounter a total of
3 Infested Barbarians here.

Also in this area are enemies called Infected Ghouls.
These guys are fast and deal poison damage as well, so
they can be a deadly combination with the barbarians.
The ghouls also have a very close-range but deadly
attack where they willl leap forward a step, grab you,
and chomp your head off. You'll want to avoid this
attack, as it will most likely kill you. There are 2
Ghouls up ahead.

You'll also want to look out for a Blowdart Sniper
coming up. This guy is extremely dangerous, and will be
lurking just past the Ghouls. The Sniper attacks are
silent, long-range, and highly toxic: just a couple of
hits and you'll be taking heavy residual damage for some
time. He'll shoot at you from outside your visual range,
but once you reach him, he'll be no match for you in
melee. Luckily, Blowdart Snipers don't respawn after
they die. Near the first Sniper is a ladder leading down
to three Ghouls and a SOUL
OF A PROUD KNIGHT (2000S).

Just ahead you'll come upon a ledge on your left, from
which you can jump to reach a weapon, IAITO.
This is a difficult jump, but if you make it, you'll be
able to jump down to the location of this area's
bonfire. There are also two bridges, one stable and one
unstable, leading to the next platform. As many as 4
Ghouls will attack you here, crossing the bridge if they
see you from the opposite side. Across the bridge, there
is a path behind the wooden wall leading to a set of SHADOW MASK, SHADOW OVERCOAT,
SHADOW GAUNTLETS, and SHADOW LEGGINGS, which will give
you good protection against poison. You can jump down to
the platform below to find . Further ahead, you'll encounter a
couple of Ghouls and another SOUL
OF A PROUD KNIGHT hanging off the very end of the ledge
to the right. You can roll or jump to reach the nearby
bridge from here. Now head left and activate the BONFIRE on the
bridge.

Now, if you had taken the ladder from the area of two
bridges, you'd end up on a different path. To get back
to an item on that path, use the ladder between the
bonfire and the Undead Attack Dogs on the next bridge.
You'll see a Ghoul facing away on the platform, making
for an easy backstab kill. There's another Ghoul
humorously trapped in a pot; he can't escape unless you
free him yourself, so he's no threat. Take the path back
to several Ghouls you fought before on the bridges. Here
you'll find a ladder leading back up to that area and a
corpse with LARGE SOUL OF
A NAMELESS SOLDIER. There's also a broken floor you can
fall through, but you can just go back to the bonfire to
reach the same area without taking falling damage.

From the bonfire, head backward (or forward, if you've
just respawned) to a ladder leading down. There are 2
Ghouls at the bottom. You can also go out on a limb to
recover 3 BLOOMING PURPLE
MOSS CLUMPS, which cure toxic. There's a rickety bridge
here that will move underneath you as you cross, so take
it slow. On the other side, head down the ramps for 2
Flaming Attack Dogs (think small Undead Attack Dogs that
breathe fire) and another limb to walk out on for HUMANITY.

Now, head back to the bonfire and head forward (again,
this is backwards based on the direction you face when
you respawn). On the bridge ahead, there are a Ghoul and
2 Flaming Attack Dogs waiting for you. The Ghoul above
will also drop down if you didn't kill him previously.
If you're having trouble fighting the Flaming Attack
Dogs, the most important thing is to avoid their fire
breath. Whenever one of them suddenly stops moving, he's
most likely charging up this attack, so get your
distance or get behind him to avoid the flames.

Past these guys, there are two more Ghouls and then a
ladder on your right. This will take you down to an area
with a SOUL OF A PROUD
KNIGHT and two more ladders. There will probably be Ghouls
ascending both ladders, so deal with them first. Then go
down the right ladder and follow the path to an item,
watching out for yet another Ghoul around the corner on
the left. Head to the end of the path and pick up the EAGLE SHIELD.

Now go back up and take the other ladder down. You
should have noticed a large monster affixed to the wall
by now. This is the Parasite Wall Hugger. Though I'll
put him down as a mini-boss, he's humorously easy to
beat if you have ranged weapons or magic.

MINI-BOSS: PARASITE WALL HUGGER

This nasty creature will attempt to crush you with its
bulbous head if you get close. This attack will bring
your Stamina, and then your Health, down very quickly.
Fortunately, this seems to be his sole attack, and as he
is affixed to the wall, he cannot pursue you if you
stand just outside his attack range. From there, you can
pelt him with spells, bolts, or arrows without fear of
harm. This pathetic beast will drop 1000S when killed.
You can also collect the Pyromancy, POWER WITHIN, that he was
guarding.

Slaying the Parasite Wall Hugger opens up a path that
you can only pass through from the other side. It
certainly would suck to pass through it with the
Parasite Wall Hugger lurking there, but now that it's
gone, we can make our way to that area. Ascending the
rather tall ladder on this level will take you to the
top of that chamber, where one Ghoul waits. There's then
a ladder that takes you back down and out of the tunnel
the Parasite was guarding.

Returning to the tall ladder leading up, you should see
a ramp leading down with a LARGE
SOUL OF A NAMELESS SOLDIER on it. Take the ramp to reach
a lower level of the chamber, guarded by a Ghoul and a
Barbarian. Descend the ladder here, and look down and to
your left as you walk across the next wooden platform.
You should see a corpse with an item below; drop down
here to pick up a WHIP.

Drop down again and you'll come to the area exit, where
you'll need to pass through a white barrier. When you
come out, there will be a ladder on your right leading
back up (though you didn't miss anything) and a
Cragspider on your left. The Cragspider has a weak melee
attack, but his fire breath can be highly dangerous. If
you get behind him, he can drop fire bombs on you too.
Fortunately, he attacks slowly and is easily interrupted
while charging up his fire breath. There's a second
Cragspider beyond this one.

After descending a series of ladders, you'll encounter
a path with 3 more Cragspiders. At the end of the path
are WANDERER HOOD, WANDERER
COAT, WANDERER MANCHETTE, WANDERER BOOTS, and a
FALCHION. Also, you'll probably begin to face Giant
Mosquito attacks at this point. These enemies are weak,
but they are hard to hit in melee. They can also poison
you, and they respawn indefinitely, making for a huge
annoyance. There's nowhere safe you can stop with these
guys around other than the upcoming bonfire.

When you come down to the swamp area, there will be
another 3 or 4 Cragspiders waiting for you. Just off the
platform to the right is a LARGE
SOUL OF A PROUD KNIGHT (3000S), but be wary! Stepping in
the swamp will start to fill your poison bar rapidly, so
run through as quickly as you can, and rest on land to
let your poison level go back down. Just a little
further to your right is a chamber entrance with a BONFIRE. Further
in the chamber, you can find a chest with a DRAGON SCALE, a rare upgrade
item used to improve draconic weapons.

When you exit the bonfire tunnel, you'll have quite a
lot of exploring to do in this swamp. From the bonfire,
I'll take you clockwise around the swamp, so that you
can stick to the land as much as possible. First, you'll
have to get past the system of wooden platforms you came
down from, as well as the accompanying cragspiders. Past
here, you'll see a branch leading up, guarded by 3 Giant
Leeches.

Giant Leeches can gang up on you and deal some serious
damage, but if you're patient and eliminate them one by
one, you'll find them slow and not particularly
threatening. Behind the branch and a pillar, you'll find
2 Leeches guarding a GREEN
TITANITE SHARD. Up on the branch itself, you'll find a
corpse with a PLANK SHIELD.
However, a hidden wall behind it reveals a chest
containing TWIN
HUMANITIES. This path leads to the Great Hollow. While
the Great Hollow is essentially an optional area at this
point, there are lots of Crystal Lizards to kill for
items and Basilisks to kill for souls, and it leads to
Ash Lake, where there's a Hydra to battle and a covenant
to join. First, however, continue collecting the items
in this area.

Exit the hollow entrance and head left, into an alcove
with as many as 13 Leeches. In this area, you'll find a
LARGE TITANITE SHARD and the SERVER weapon.

To the right of the bonfire is a LARGE SOUL OF A PROUD
KNIGHT near a pillar, guarded by a Cragspider. There is
also a LARGE TITANITE SHARD by
the next pillar over, near another 3 Barbarians with
boulders. At some point while you're in this area of the
swamp, you'll be invaded by the NPC Red Phantom,
Maneater Mildred. She's fairly easy if you can lure her
into the bonfire chamber so you don't have to worry
about poison or enemies while you fight her. As with
most humanoid opponents, my recommended strategy is to
evade her attacks and backstab her. The prizes for
victory are a BUTCHER KNIFE
and HUMANITY.

Your item collection in Blighttown isn't quite done,
though. Near the location of that last item, you should
be able to spot a spinning waterwheel with a wooden
platform leading up to it. Ascend this platform and
climb the ladder, then stand in front of the wheel where
the small wooden platforms are going up. Drop down onto
one such platform, ride it to the top, and step off when
you reach the upper level.

From this platform, ascend the ladder to encounter a
Cragspider lurking just behind another ladder. Instead
of taking the path behind the spider, continue up the
ladder. You'll quickly be under attack from the Blowdart
Sniper ahead, who you can run to while blocking and
knock over the edge with ease. You may be attacked by a
couple of Giant Mosquitoes that followed you from below,
but once you dispatch them, no more should come after
you while you're up here.

Around the corner is where the trouble starts: Blowdart
Snipers will be attacking from all directions, making it
very difficult to eliminate individual foes.
Furthermore, should you fall from here, you'll land
amidst numerous Flaming Attack Dogs, so watch your step.
You may end up having to pick off the Snipers over the
course of several lives, as they fortunately do not
respawn.

Around the first corner on the left is a SOUL OF A PROUD KNIGHT.
Below is the treasured FIRE
KEEPER SOUL, which means another upgrade for your Estus
Flask. You can get the advantage against the Flaming
Attack Dogs guarding it with a plunging attack, but
you'll still have to fight your way through the path on
the left to reach a ladder leading back up.

If you return to the area where you fought the first of
these Blowdart Snipers, you'll see a ladder. Climb the
series of ladders all the way at the top to find a chest
with a KEY TO NEW LONDO RUINS
inside. On your left is a path to the Valley of Drakes,
an optional area that you can take a shortcut through
using this key, allowing you to enter New Londo and use
the elevator there to reach Firelink Shrine. The Valley
of Drakes will be covered in detail in a later section.

You can now leave that Blowdart Sniper-infested chamber
and return to where you fought the Cragspider in this
area. Follow that path and walk across the branches to
find a ladder and another Cragspider. Follow the
straight path first to reach a trove of goodies: the REMEDY spell, MASK OF THE
SEALER, CRIMSON ROBE, CRIMSON GLOVES, CRIMSON
WAISTCLOTH, and BANISHMENT CATALYST. Remedy will cure
your bleeding, poison, and toxic for 4 uses. The crimson
armor set will protect you well from most damage types,
and your new catalyst will double as a weapon! The
ladder you passed leads only to a Cragspider.

You're essentially done here, so you can return the
swamp now. With all ancillary exploration completed, don
your best fire-resistant armor and shield, then head to
the area guarded by the 3 Barbarians with boulders. You
can avoid the Barbarians themselves and sprint up to the
hole at the top of the mound, which will take you to a
very brief area, Quelaag's Domain, which will shortly
lead to a boss.

In the spider nest, you'll encounter a new enemy: the Egg Carrier. These slow-moving, docile creatures are unlikely to harm you. They do have an attack that causes a maggot to latch onto your face and plant an egg that will grow there, preventing you from wearing a helmet and stealing half your souls. Obviously, you don't want that, so avoid the Egg Carrier's grab if you anger it. If you kill the Egg Carrier, the nightmare isn't over yet. It'll spawn 5 Vile Maggots, which are small fast enemies that gang up on you and kill you in no time at all. When you head to fight Quelaag, you should leave these guys alone so you don't have to use your precious Estus Flask. Just run past them, and they won't bother you.

If you are in Human Form and have defeated Maneater Mildred, her summon sign will appear near the boss arena. By all means, summon her if you have the opportunity. Afterward, enter the white fog to begin the battle.

BOSS: QUELAAG

Quelaag is a pretty disgusting fusion of spider and woman. As her attacks deal fire damage, you'll want to evade rather than block most of the time. Her primary attack is spitting lava with her spider head, leaving that area of the battlefield unusable. This attack takes a while to complete, allowing you to avoid it and get a few hits in before she moves again.

Quelaag's second favorite move is a sword of fire that she attacks with from atop the spider body. You can backpedal to get outside this attack's range, or get behind Quelaag to attack her while avoiding her sword. Only block this move if you can't dodge it.

The most frustrating attack in Quelaag's arsenal is a roar that deals fire damage to everything around her. You might be far enough away that it won't hit you, but otherwise, you'll need to block to mitigate the damage or face instant death. Only when Quelaag goes to roar is it crucial that you switch to defense.

If your attacks aren't hurting Quelaag, you've probably reached the point where you need to upgrade your weapons. This probably means running back to Andre after dying in this battle. Getting back to him is much easier if you go through the Valley of Drakes shortcut to New Londo Ruins, which takes you to Firelink Shrine, which has an elevator to Undead Parish. Trying to go back the way you came is far more likely to get you killed over and over and over again.

When you do manage to bring Quelaag down, you'll get 20,000S and the SOUL OF QUELAAG. Don't consume this soul, as it can be used to ascend equipment into powerful rare weapons: a curved sword into Quelaag's Furysword or a katana into the Chaos Blade. If you want to collect both weapons, you'll have to get Quelaag's soul again in New Game+.

With Quelaag beaten, you can now enter the chamber and ring the second Bell of Awakening. This will earn you the achievement/trophy, "Ring the Bell (Quelaag's Domain)". While you're here, head downstairs and break the illusory wall to reveal a hidden passage. Don't make the mistake of attacking the Egg Carrier here! He's actually an NPC named Eingyi. He'll ask if you are a servant, to which you should reply "yes." If you for some reason said no, you will be able to try again after you reset the conversation by leaving, dying, etc. Once you are accepted, he will also sell you Egg Vermifuge to cure you if you become an egghead.

If you speak to him with an egg on your face, you'll unlock the full complement of his services: Pyromancy Flame reinforcement, more spells, and, if you don't have a PYROMANCY FLAME on you, he'll give you one for free.

Eingyi will allow you to see the Daughter of Chaos. Though she cannot be understood without the Old Witch's Ring, you can still benefit from her functions as a Fire Keeper and Covenant Giver. The Fire Keeper in Firelink Shrine, by the way, will have been murdered when you return there, so if you want to upgrade your Flask, now's the time. Also, regardless of whether you accept or decline, receiving the offer to join her covenant will earn you the achievement/trophy, Covenant: Chaos Servant. If you do join the Covenant, she will give you the Pyromancy, GREAT CHAOS FIREBALL. You will then be able to pay humanity to rank up in her Covenant. Once you pay 20 humanity points to reach rank 2, she will grant you the Pyromancy, CHAOS STORM. Being at rank 2 in this Covenant will also unlock a shortcut from Demon Ruins to Lost Izalith. Keep in mind that you can only be a member of one Covenant at a time.

Now that both Bells of Awakening have been rung, your next objective is Sen's Fortress, which contains the entrance to the city of Anor Londo. First, however, you may wish to return to Firelink Shrine. There you will find DINGY ROBE, DINGY GLOVES, BLOOD-STAINED SKIRT, and BLACK EYE ORB, an item that will allow you to take revenge on the Fire Keeper's killer, but only when used in the hall of Anor Londo.

You can also meet Kingseeker Frampt in the old flooded temple. This guy is a Primordial Serpent, and he gives you a little more information about what's going on in the game world. Apparently, you need to seek out something called the Lordvessel in Anor Londo, which is why you need to head through Sen's Fortress. More importantly, Frampt is the only means of "selling" items in the game: you can feed them to him, and he will break them down into souls. You may want to do this with redundant item drops from enemies; after all, how many Broken Straight Swords can you possibly need? You should also trade in bronze, silver, and gold coins (NOT Sunlight Medals!), excess Dung Pies (200S apiece), and whatever else you don't want or need. Frampt can also break down pieces of Titanite into smaller pieces of the same type.

If you talk to the Pyromancer here after meeting the Daughter of Chaos (or presumably Quelaana of Izalith), he will leave to seek her out the next time you leave his presence. Buy what you can from him before then, because the next time you see him, he'll have become a Hollow in the Blighttown swamp area.

You can optionally revisit the Undead Asylum now, where you can fight the Stray Demon. There are other areas to explore as well: Darkroot Garden, Darkroot Basin, The Great Hollow, Ash Lake, and New Londo Ruins. However, exporing these areas is not yet required. Your main objective is currently Sen's Fortress.

Sen's Fortress is home to several new enemies. The most common foes will be the Serpent Soldiers and Serpent Mages. The soldiers are armed with shields and swords, and can attack with their snake heads as well as their blades. Mages will have cobra heads and shoot electric blasts at you. Both can be backstabbed.

To reach Sen's Fortress exit the door on the level above Andre of Astora and cross the long bridge. At the end, if you've rung the Bells of Awakening, the gate will be open. (Otherwise, Siegmeyer of Catarina will be moping on the steps.) In the middle of the entrance is a pressure plate that will unleash an arrow trap upon you from a slit in the stairs ahead, so avoid stepping on it (unless you lure an enemy in front of it first, as these traps can hurt them as well as you). At the top of the stairs, there will be a Serpent Soldier on your left and another on your right. A SOUL OF A BRAVE WARRIOR can be found near the latter foe.

In the next room, you'll have to carefully cross a thin bridge while bladed pendulums pass back and forth over it. You'll need to time your movements carefully, and getting knocked off will cause you to fall into a pit filled with Prowling Demons below. To make matters worse, a Serpent Mage will shoot at you from the bridge above as you cross, and while you can block to reduce your damage, it is quite unlikely that you have a 100% electric resistant shield at this point in the game. Taking him out with a bow or magic will probably be the easiest solution. Another Serpent Soldier awaits when you pass under the Mage's bridge.

After crossing the first bridge, you can drop down to a platform with three Serpent Mages and perform a plunging attack. From here, you can drop down onto the mucky lower floor, which will slow you down unless you wear the Rusted Iron Ring, an item you can find when you first revisit Undead Asylum. You'll need that ring too, as there are no less than four Prowling Demons, which are guaranteed to drop 4 DEMON TITANITES. One Prowling Demon is in the first room, one is in a passage beneath the Serpent Mages' platform, and two more are in a second, connected room. Prowling Demons have great range with their polearms, but their slow movements give you time to get behind them, where their wide swings cannot hurt you. From afar, they will either leap up in the air and stab you with their weapons, or they will shoot lightning blasts at you.

In the passage where one of the demons lurks, you can recover a SCYTHE and a SOUL OF A BRAVE WARRIOR. To get back up to the first floor, return to the first room and locate some steps leading out of the sludge to a small room with a ladder. Ascend the ladder to find a place to jump down to the first floor, where there is also a LARGE SOUL OF A PROUD KNIGHT.Before you drop down, hit a destructable wall up here to reveal a path with a ladder leading up to a Giant on the roof, who will drop a TITANITE CHUNK and 3000S when slain. The Giant is actually pretty easy, if you avoid his attacks. To get behind him, just run between his legs. He has a stomp attack to watch out for, and occasionally he will frenzy and throw a storm of punches while quickly racing forward. If you keep your distance, though, the attack will leave him open for a very long time.

Once you reach the other side, take the path up to the left to reach the bridge the mage is (or was) on. Carefully avoid the pendulums here again, then take out the Serpent Mage if he's still alive. Be careful of another pressure plate in the room he was guarding, but be sure to pick up 2 LARGE TITANITE SHARDS in this same room before advancing.

In the next room, you'll cross a bridge with a Serpent Soldier resting on the wall below. He won't attack if you don't strike first. There's a passageway behind the wall he rests on, which you can open later by rolling a boulder into this area, or by getting him to hit it with his weapon. On the other side is a SOUL OF A HERO in a cage, which you can open with the Master Key or Cage Key (which you can find later in the level). You can also open another cage to free the NPC, Big Hat Logan, with the same key. After freeing him, he will return to Firelink Shrine, where he will teach sorcery.

As you exit, you'll spot a Serpent Warrior outside. As he comes to attack you, however, a boulder will roll down from the left and most likely kill him. Boulders will continue to roll down the path outside, so you'll need to time your movements to reach the upper area.

The path further into the fortress is on the left, but if you stop here to avoid a boulder, you can get up to the top of the path, guarded by a Serpent Mage. In the room behind him is a RING OF STEEL PROTECTION, a very useful accessory that will significantly increase your physical defenses.

If you drop down to the ledge below from near this room, you can pick up a SHOTEL. Drop down again to reach a ledge where Siegmeyer of Catarina will be pouting, this time about the boulder trap obstructing his path. There's also a few more Serpent Soldiers down here, on the thin end of the ledge. Past these enemies, you can get back up to the boulder path where it drops off near the bottom.

Once you reach the room on the left of the boulder path, beware of the pressure switch in the corridor ahead; the arrow trap it unleashing will come from behind you, while all the ones until now have fired from in front of you. The next room contains a Serpent Soldier and the entrance to a labyrinthine twisting tunnel through which boulders regularly pass. At the bottom is a path to a room with a Mimic, a powerful enemy that disguises itself as a chest and eats you alive if you attempt to open it. To defeat the Mimic, attack the chest instead of opening it, and then avoid getting close enough for it to use its bite attack. The Mimic will drop LIGHTNING SPEAR, a very powerful weapon that deals lightning damage, the bane of many a dragon.

Outside the mimic room, the boulders will be falling into a chasm at the end of the tunnel. After a certain number of boulders roll by, they will fill the chasm, and the last boulder will smash through the wall on the opposite side. Enter here to find another spectacular accessory, the COVETOUS GOLD SERPENT RING, which will increase enemies' item drop rates by 200%.

To progress to the upper level, use the elevator in the Mimic's room, but be sure to get off at the first stop, because a spiked ceiling is the next. Once you get up, ascend the stairs, then descend the thin stairs by the wall and head up to where all the boulders are coming from: a rotating boulder direction device.

Once you reach the upper room, you'll be able to turn the central device to redirect the boulder trap. If you consider its original position to be "pointing south," you can point the boulder east to send it down the hallway back to the room with the resting serpent, which will will kill him and destroy the wall if you haven't done so already. Direct the boulders north, and they'll simply return to firing on the path Siegmeyer occupies. Pointing the trap west will effectively disable it and shoot boulders out the window. After adjusting the boulders' path, you will find that Siegmeyer has moved on from his original spot.

After adjusting the boulder trap as you see fit, take the small stairs leading to a hallway from this room. There'll be a pressure plate that will activate a bunch of arrow traps in front of it, but you'll be fine if you simply step back after pressing it. Continue to another thin walkway covered in swinging blades. If you sprint right after the last blade passes and jump forward at the end, you can make it across in one go. Head left, past the stairs, to reach a Serpent Soldier guarding 2 LARGE TITANITE SHARDS.

The path opposite the stairs, also guarded by a Serpent Soldier, leads to a hole you can drop down into to reach a secret platform with the SLUMBERING DRAGONCREST RING. This item will make your footsteps completely silent, so enemies can no longer hear you sneaking up on them even if you run. You can then drop down to the first bladed bridge and work your way back to your original location.

Back at the stairs we kept avoiding before, you can now climb them and kill the Serpent Mage up there. Now you'll have to cross an ultra-thin platform (practically a tightrope) with bladed pendulums moving back and forth over it. First, take out the Serpent Mage to your left, whose spells will knock you off the platform. Any ranged attack will do. With him out of the way, cross the bridge with care, then take note of the two pressure plates here that trigger arrow traps. Avoid them and head through the fog on the right (the left path leads back to the Serpent Mage).

Past the fog, you'll be on the roof. Take the right path first, which leads to two Elite Undead Guards and a chest with FLAME STONEPLATE RING, which increases your Flame DEF by 50. Now head back to where you entered the rooftops, and take the stairs on the left instead. Here you'll be beset by gigantic firebombs from above, so avoid the explosions and keep on the move (lucky we just got that fire ring, huh?). Once you reach the second level, there's a broken wall. Drop down from there to reach a BONFIRE. I'm sure you'll be thankful for that.

On the same platform where you can drop down to the bonfire, there's a LARGE SOUL OF A BRAVE WARRIOR, which you can grab while dodging explosions if you're quick. Same goes for the 2 LARGE TITANITE SHARDS on the next level up. From here, you can head around the side of the castle to end the explosions, but you'll have to face a Heavy Knight. Take the ladder down and ascend the tower to face Undead Prince Ricard on the stairs. Slay him to obtain RICARD'S RAPIER. You can also ascend to the tower he guarded to acquire RARE RING OF SACRFICE and DIVINE BLESSING, an item that fully heals you and cures any ailment.

Return to the area where you were bombarded and take the thin platforms leading toward the Giant dropping boulders in the distance. Go left and drop down (making sure you can survive the fall) to find a SNIPER CROSSBOW and 12 SNIPER BOLTS, both of which have longer range than the average variety. Drop down to end up back where you fought the first Elite of the area. Return to the place where you dropped down and jump across instead to reach the Crestfallen Merchant, who will sell some advanced tools: The Black Firebomb, the Green Blossom (which increases stamina recovery), several forms of Titanite, many different weapons, ammunitions, and armors, and some rings to protect against lightning and magic. You can also find a Serpent Mage guarding the CAGE KEY downstairs, which will allow you to free Big Hat Logan.

Either jump back to the long platform or backtrack to it, then continue on the intact path. There'll be a fork: the left path leads only to an Elite, while the right leads toward the boss of the area. You'll have to go along a narrow bridge, where you'll be beset by the bomb-throwing Giant and an Elite sniper, the latter of which you can kill when you reach the end of the path. In the next room, you'll see the fog leading to the boss. There's also a spiral staircase leading up to the Giant who keeps throwing bombs at you. I anticipate that you'll want vengeance on the Giant first. To sweeten your revenge, he drops a TITANITE CHUNK.

Before you enter the fog, you may want to revive to human so you can use the summon sign across the nearby bridge to summon the one-time ally, Black Iron Tarkus, to aid you in the coming battle. When you're ready, traverse the white light and begin the battle.

Iron Golem

The Iron Golem is a truly massive foe. Keeping your distance may seem like a good idea, but it's not. He can slash the air with his axe and fire a blade of wind at you. The best strategy is actually to stick close to his feet. When he goes to attack, as with the Giant, you can roll between his legs to evade and stay behind him during his attacks.

The Golem's response if you manage to stay behind him like this is to try to kick you with his heel, so watch out for that attack. More alarmingly, if you're really close, he can reach down and grab you, then throw you on the ground (or out of the arena), both of which will probably kill you.

After you hit one of his feet enough, the Iron Golem will begin to wobble, and be temporarily unable to attack. Continue attacking until he falls down, which will further lengthen his recovery time. If you're fighting on the narrow bridge part of the arena, it's possible for him to fall off the bridge and die instantly, which will make the battle a lot easier, though this method still requires significant skill and luck.

Defeating the Iron Golem will earn you a whopping 30,000S and CORE OF AN IRON GOLEM (even if the Iron Golem fell to his death). After the battle, examine the ring of light in the center of the arena, and you'll be transported to Anor Londo, which will earn you the achievement, "Anor Londo."

Head down the stairs to face your first enemy in Anor Londo: a sentinel. This large, slow-moving knight will only animate when you grow close. He delivers powerful attacks, but it's fairly easy to get behind him and attack him when he swings. Ultimately, he's not especially tough, and drops just 500S. Go through the door and turn left to encounter two more Sentinels guarding a chest, which contains DEMON TITANITE. Exit through the archway in this room.

Here you'll come upon a wide, bare path. On your left is a room with a BONFIRE and a Fire Keeper, the Lady of the Darkling, who you can actually speak to. If you continue straight from whence you came, you'll encounter two Sentinels guarding two chests. Be warned, however, that the chest on the right is a Mimic, and you should attack it instead of opening it. The mimic drops a CRYSTAL HALBERD, a very powerful but fragile type of weapon. The other chest contains TWINKLING TITANITE. The path outside, guarded by a Sentinel, leads to the Duke's Archives, which you cannot yet reach, as it is sealed by a golden light.

Go to the platform across from the bonfire and descend the elevator. Go down the stairs and outside, where a Gargoyle will attack you. Severing the Gargoyle's tail will yield the same weapon as the Bell Gargoyle (the Gargoyle Tail Axe), but it will also eliminate the Gargoyle's tail attack. Note that this Gargoyle also spits lightning instead of fire. Note that the bridge the Gargoyle guards is currently unusable, so we'll have to find a way around.

After the fight, drop down on the right of the stairs you came from and follow the path to a chest with DEMON TITANITE. Go under the tunnel beneath the stairs and look for a roof extension leading to the nearby church. Walk along this thin roof and drop down to the balcony to reach the church.

Circle around this floor to kill the two Painting Guards that appear. These enemies are human in shape, wielding dual swords and throwing knives. Next, ascend the nearby ladder. You'll have to cross a network of beams while fighting three Painting Guards and trying not to get knocked off. Fortunately, the enemies are easy to kick down to their deaths. When you reach the chandelair, strike the chain to cause the chandelier, along with its item, to fall to the ground, allowing you to recover it later. At the end of the beams, take the ladder down. Take out the last Painting Guard on the stairs, and traverse the light.

Get on the moveable platform in the middle of the area and push the lever. This will complete the bridge that was guarded by the Gargoyle, creating a path to the castle and, on the lower section of the platform, an entrance to the bottom floor of the church. Go down there first to fight numerous Painting Guards and collect the GREAT MAGIC WEAPON sorcery from the destroyed chandelier. In the back corner is a corpse with BLACK IRON HELM, BLACK IRON ARMOR, BLACK IRON GAUNTLETS, BLACK IRON LEGGINGS, a GREATSWORD, and a BLACK IRON GREATSHIELD. If you've received the Peculiar Doll, you will be able to enter the painting on the wall, taking you to the Painted World of Ariamis. However, I will not yet be covering that area. If you do choose to enter the Painted World, be warned that you may not exit it until you have completed that area.

Lowering the rotating platforma a second time will align the top level with the lower floor of the church and the bottom level with a room containing a BONFIRE and a RING OF THE SUN'S FIRSTBORN.

Realign the moving platform with the bridge to the castle, where you'll have to fight another Gargoyle. When the monster is slain, head up the stairs to fight two Sentinels, then head right. Head down the stairs to fight three Bat Wing Demons. Lure them into fighting you one at a time, using ranged attacks to goad them if needed. All of this enemy's attacks will deliver electricity damage, so choose a shield that's strong against the electric type. From this ledge, there is a ramp leading down to a platform with two Bat Wing Demons. When you go up the next ramp, you'll be beset by Silver Knights with giant bows. Proceed quickly to avoid their arrows, and you'll be able to approach them and kick them off their ledges. The one on the left also has a roof path leading down to a SOUL OF A HERO. Head around to the right and drop down from the ledge to the balcony below, then traverse the white light.

You'll now be inside the castle. The door on your left leads to a BONFIRE. Resting here is none other than your ally Solaire, whom you can chat up while you're here. In the room on the right is a lone Silver Knight guarding a chest with 3 SUNLIGHT MEDALS.

Now go back and head up the main stairwell. At the top of the stairs are two more Mimics. One has a GOLD COIN, and the other has 5 SILVER COINS. In one of the rooms behind the stairs, there's a Silver Knight guarding a SOUL OF A HERO. In the hallway are another two rooms, and at the end, a Silver Knight with a bow on the balcony. One room is locked; the other leads to a bedroom. The bedroom is connected to a room with a Silver Knight and a staircase leading up.

At the top of the staircase, you'll emerge on the roof. There's a Silver Knight standing out here, and as he has a bow, you'll want to eliminate him first thing. Next take out the one guarding the opposite set of stairs. Follow the stairs down to meet Siegmeyer, who is stuck once again. Kill the three Silver Knights outside and then speak to him to receive the TINY BEING'S RING. Now unlock the door to this room before heading back up.

Take the main stairway from the roof to reach a catwalk above the starting floor. The door on the right leads down to two Silver Knights and the SILVER KNIGHT HELM, ARMOR, GAUNTLETS, and LEGGINGS. You can also open the door here to create a shortcut to the first floor. In the opposite room is a Prowling Demon that'll drop 2 DEMON TITANITES. Yay!

After exploring, head up the stairs at the end of the catwalk. When you enter this hall, go around to the opposite set of stairs leading down and kill the Silver Knight with a bow there, then go down to the ground floor and concentrate on the Royal Sentinels. Clear out the enemies below, then push the lever to create a shortcut back to the level's inception.

You can also exit through a passage on the top floor that will lead you to a Giant Blacksmith and allow you to open a door leading back to the castle gates, once you deal with the four Bat Wing Demons here. The demons are also guarding a TITANITE CHUNK on the ledge. There's also a chest behind the Giant Blacksmith with the rare HAWK RING, which you can get by rolling between the Giant and the wall and squeezing yourself behind him to open the chest. Furthermore, in the main chamber of the castle, there's a window on the top level that's broken out. By exiting this window and climbing down to a ledge, you can jump from this ledge to a terrace with a DRAGONSLAYER GREATBOW and DRAGONSLAYER ARROW.

Now that all that's done, go to the main hall and use the Black Eye Orb to invade the world of Knight Lautrec, murderer of the Fire Keeper. Lautrec has two companions, a lancer and a spellcaster, but the greatest threat is Lautrec himself, for his attacks are unblockable. Eliminate the frail spellcaster first, then focus on avoiding Lautrec and killing the spearman. When it's just Lautrec, strafe to avoid his attacks get behind him for a backstab. For your effort, you will receive a SOUVENIR OF REPRISAL, the FIRE KEEPER SOUL, the RING OF FAVOR AND PROTECTION, and 5 HUMANITIES. Be sure to use that Fire Keeper Soul to revive the Fire Keeper in Firelink Shrine.

BOSS: EXECUTIONER SMOURGH
BOSS: DRAGON SLAYER ORNSTEIN

Behind the white light in the main hall, you'll have to face not one but two bosses. This will make the battle much harder, as you'll have to separate them and fight one while keeping an eye out for the other. The worst mistake you can make it to get between them; instead, use the pillars (or pillar stumps, if they're damaged) to block one bosses path to you while you get a hit or two on your main target. Don't bother damaging both at once, as when one goes down, the other becomes more powerful and will be fully healed.

The order in which you defeat these two is an important choice. If you slay Ornstein (the human-sized one) first, he will drop the LEO RING, but Smourgh (the big guy) will become charged with lightning. Defeating the supercharged Smourgh will then net you the SOUL OF SMOURGH. On the other hand, if you first kill Smourgh, he will drop nothing, and Ornstein will be powered up and grow to an enormous size. When the giant Ornstein falls, he will drop the SOUL OF ORNSTEIN. Additionally, if you don't tell the character Patches that you are a cleric, he will become a merchant as sell the armor of whichever boss you slew last, Ornstein or Smourgh. Whichever option you choose, be sure to switch and kill them in the opposite order if and when you play through the game a second time.

The difficult part of this fight is getting the two separated so you can focus on damaging your target. Smourgh is usually big and slow, making it easy to dodge his giant hammer swings. The other benefit is that there's a lot of him to hit. He does have one annoying move that he'll always use right when you get Ornstein alone: whenever he's far away from you, he'll run at you full speed and knock you into the air with his hammer. The best way to prevent him from doing this is to make sure there's a pillar in his way, as he'll get stuck on it during his run.

Ornstein usually walks at a slow pace, and his spear attacks aren't nearly as heavy and difficult to block as Smourgh's hammer. The problem with Ornstein is that some of his attacks are lightning charged, so you'll still take some damage even if you block with a normal shield. At long range, Ornstein may fly toward you to impale you with his spear, but his favorite ranged move is to throw lightning bolts at you.

Before you proceed any further, be warned that now is your first and last chance to join the Darkwraith Covenant. To do so, you must first go to Darkroot Basin and defeat Sif, then use his ring to enter the Abyss and fight the Four Kings. After that, with the Lordvessel in your possession, speak to the Primordial Serpent, Darkstalker Kaathe, and he will offer to let you join the covenant. If you speak to his brother, Kingseeker Frampt, at any time after acquiring the Lordvessel, you will be forced to side with Frampt and Kaathe's covenant will no longer be available. On the other hand, siding with Kaathe will anger Frampt and cause him to disappear.

When you do head back to Firelink, speak to Siegmeyer and say "yes" when he asks if you opened the gate to Sen's Fortress. He'll be so grateful that he'll give you the miracle, EMIT FORCE. He'll journey to Blighttown next, where he'll be in need of your help again. However, if you want to earn a Titanite Slab, you'll want to leave him in his current pickle until you've met his daughter, Sieglinde, in the Duke's Archives.

Note that you only get one opportunity to buy spells from Logan at Firelink Shrine. Once you speak to him, he will leave for the Duke's Archives the next time you leave the area. Don't fret, however; any spells that Logan only sells in Firelink will also be sold by Griggs after Logan departs.

To return to the Undead Asylum, you must first have activated the elevator in Undead Parish. Take the elevator up from Firelink Shrine, and as you pass the roof of the elevator room, step off onto it. Now go around to the right, where there's a cliff. From this cliff, you can jump to a stone projection from the tower, which will lead you up into it. Now ascend the stairs to reach the crow's nest, then curl up in a ball there for a while. After about 20 seconds, the crow will come and take you to Undead Asylum.

The first thing you'll notice is that the area is now populated by Torch Zombies, and they're significantly more powerful than they were the first time around. You also notice that you can trade with Snuggly again, according to the chart in the first chapter. To trade an item, drop it in her nest and exit the game. Load the game, and you'll find that your item has been replaced with the item you were trading for. This can only be done with one of each item per game (including one regular Pyromancy Flame and Quelanna's ascended Pyromancy Flame). Some trades are more worthwhile than others, you'll find.

There are two new areas to explore here. First, if you step into the center of the arena where you fought the Asylum Demon, you'll fall through the floor and drop into the arena of his brother, the Stray Demon. Before you fight him, you can go around the edge of the arena to avoid the fight, then head back up to the second floor. Watch out for the old boulder trap, which is now reset. The other thing you have to worry about here is Oscar, Knight of Astora, who has been revived as a Hollow. Defeating him will yield his CREST SHIELD.

In the room where the first Undead Soldier was, you can now unlock the gate with the Undead Asylum F2 West Key. This leads to the top of the broken stairway that was previously unreachable, with a RUSTED IRON RING to collect. This item will give you full freedom of movement even in water, swamps, or tar.

BOSS: STRAY DEMON

Though he is stronger and more durable, the Stray Demon's attack pattern is essentially the same as the Asylum Demon's. The Stray Demon does introduce one new move that makes the fight quite a bit harder: a firey explosion that deals fire damage and tears right through your guard. You can tell he's about to perform this move when he signals with his weapon, which is your cue to get your distance from him. When he raises his hammer over his head to attack, this swing will also generate an explosion.

Focus on getting behind him to attack as with the Asylum Demon, but if he initiates his explosion attack, abort your assault and dodge away. Though he's powerful, he retains his predecessor's slowness, so there'll be a window of opportunity to attack after his final swing. Defeating the Stray Demon yields 20,000S and the highly sought after TITANITE SLAB.

After defeating the boss, you can exit his arena via a ladder. The ladder takes you to the entrance to a hallway. Head right to find another ladder leading back up, but head left, and you'll find a Black Knight guarding an item, the PECULIAR DOLL, which is needed to access the Painted World of Artemis. The knight himself drops a RED TITANITE CHUNK instead of the normal, colorless kind.

There are two ways to access Darkroot Garden. The main way is to defeat (or sneak past) Havel the Rock, a powerful knight at the bottom of the tower that preceded the Taurus Demon boss fight in Undead Burg. Havel has a tremendous weapon that will smash right through any normal guard, and a nigh-impenetrable defense with his tower shield and heavy armor. On the bright side, he's slow, so the easy solution is to evade his attacks and backstab him a few times until he dies. Alternatively, using magic, fire, or lightning damage will prove far more effective than physical damage in this encounter. He will drop HAVEL'S RING, an invaluable item that increases your maximum equip load by 50%.

The second way to get into Darkroot Garden is by cutting through Darkroot Basin. Check the corresponding section for information on that area. This guide will assume that you're entering from the Undead Parish, but the two entrances are very close together here, so the difference is minute.

When you emerge from the tower, head through a narrow pass. Here you'll face the Demonic Foliage, which is basically an evil shrub. At medium range, his only attack is Vine Whip, which is easily blocked. However, if you get up close, he can perform a bite attack and eat you, which will obviously cause a lot of damage. Ahead, you'll have to fight two more evil shrubs near a ledge. Hopefully, you're thinking what I'm thinking, which is that you can easily kick these veggie fiends to their deaths in this positon. On the negative side, you can easily be knocked off too. Past the second enemy, you'll find a LARGE SOUL OF A NAMELESS SOLDIER.

After defeating the Foliage, you'll come to a stone gate, which can only be opened with the Crest of Artorias, which is sold by Andre of Astora (the blacksmith) for a whopping 20,000S! Save your money, as there's another way to get past this obstacle later on in Darkroot Basin. However, there is a wall to the left of the door that you can smash to reveal a BONFIRE.

Instead of fretting about that locked door, let's head down into the garden via the path on the right. As you descend, you'll notice a small clearing with a LARGE SOUL OF A NAMELESS SOLDIER surrounded by three bushes. Who would guess that they are actually Demonic Foliage waiting to ambush you? Once you've defeated (or ignored) these tricky plants, traverse the white light ahead.

You'll be in a forest area, populated by the familiar Foliage as well as a new enemy, the Great Stone Knight. This guy is a slow, hard-hitting statue, but with a trick up his sleeve: he can cast a spell that slows you down to his level whenever you come near him. You'll want to either interrupt this move or run away until it wears off, because once you're trapped in its invisible field, this knight suddenly becomes a whole lot tougher. The other enemy that shows up here is the Tree Lizard, a two-headed lizard with snakelike necks that sticks to trees and camoflauges itself, then bites you if you pass it. In my experience, the Tree Lizards are far less of a concern that the Stone Knights.

There's a small pass in this area leading to a dead end with a PARTISAN, which is a polearm weapon. The other point of note is the tower, which leads up to the Moonlight Butterfly boss fight. Make sure you're packing a shield with decent magic defense, as well as some kind of ranged weapon.

BOSS: MOONLIGHT BUTTERFLY

You'll have to fight this flying foe from a nearby bridge, so a long-range attack method is ideal. This frail enemy floats like a butterfly, but it stings like a bee. Actually, it's various magic projectile attacks are far worse than a bee sting. The butterfly's favorite move is to shoot homing magic missiles at you, which move very quickly. With enough magic defense, you can block, but it's better to dodge them completely.

The butterfly has several other magic attacks that it occasionally uses in place of its needle-like missiles. It's second favorite is a slow-moving energy ball that floats toward you, and is more powerful but more easily evaded than the normal attack. The Moonlight Butterfly's rarest and most deadly attacks are seldom seen. The first is an energy beam that sweeps across the bridge in front of the butterfly, but this can be evaded by distancing yourself from the beam's radius. When the butterfly flies over the bridge, it will drop an energy bomb on you, so keep your distance whenever it passes over you.

Ocassionally, the butterfly will land on the bridge. This allows melee attacks to hit it while it charges up its most powerful attack, an energy explosion. To stop it, you either need to damage it enough to knock it off the bridge, or if you can't accompish that, run away just before the attack goes off.

The Moonlight Butterfly will drop a mere 3,000S, but it also drops the valuable SOUL OF THE MOONLIGHT BUTTERFLY, which can be used to ascend one of two powerful weapons. To get the other weapon that can be forged with this soul, you'll have to wait until New Game+.

To advance further in Darkroot Garden, you'll need to either purchase the overpriced key from Andre or defeat the Hydra in Darkroot Basin.

Aside from coming through Darkroot Garden, the primary way into the Darkroot Basin is to defeat (or sneak past) the Prowling Demon below Andre's workshop. The Prowling Demon is very versatile, with a long polearm and lightning magic too. Though he has a tail, it cannot be severed, and it can actually hit you during some of his attacks. The price of his wide-reaching swings is that they won't even hit you if you're right underneath him, and his finishing strike takes so long that you'll have plenty of time to move out of its range. This provides an opportunity to take him down. The Prowling Demon drops 1,000S and DEMON TITANITE.

As you descend from the tower, you'll spy a nearby LARGE SOUL OF A NAMELESS SOLDIER. You'll also notice numerous Crystal Golems around. These are strong, slow foes, and you can take advantage of their lengthy attacks to hit them many times while they recover, though their high defense means it will take a good number of hits to bring one down. Don't get too close to the lake, or the Hydra will attack you with a deadly volley of water blasts.

Up on the cliffside, there is a path leading up and one that leads down. Take the path up to find a Crystal Lizard, who you should kill for his valuable one-time loot. Drop down from near the Lizard's location to collect LEATHER ARMOR, LEATHER GLOVES, LEATHER BOOTS, a LONGBOW, and 16 FEATHER ARROWS. This bow is preferable to the paltry shortbow, if you have the attributes to handle it. If you continue to follow the path up, it leads to the beginning of Darkroot Garden.

The path that leads down will take you to a Black Knight with a spear, guarding a GRASS CREST SHIELD, an awesome shield that absorbs almost all physical damage, but more importantly, it speeds up your stamina recovery. The Black Knight also drops a BLUE TITANITE CHUNK when slain, which is very nice. Unless you don't want his drop, be careful not to knock the knight off the ledge. If you continue down, you'll come across a BONFIRE and an elevator leading to the Valley of Drakes.
To advance further in Darkroot Basin, you'll need to defeat the Hydra.

Assuming that you're emerging from the Darkroot Basin elevator, the first foe you'll encounter will be a Wyvern. These draconic enemies breathe lightning instead of fire, which most shields won't completely protect against, so you'll want to evade their breath attacks rather than blocking. At close range, Wyverns use an extremely fast bite attack you'll want to guard against. The Wyvern will also occasionally fly up in the air and either swoop down on you or breathe lightning. Usually, the Wyvern will stick the landing, but every now and then, the Wyvern will fall to its death. Note that Wyverns have a very, very small chance to drop the elusive Dragon Scale items.

The next Wyvern is on the bridge, guarding a body with BRIGAND HOOD, ARMOR, GAUNTLETS, and TROUSERS, as well as a SPIDER SHIELD. Across the bridge are three more Wyverns. Fighting more than one at a time can be suicidal, so lure them out onto the bridge and fight them one at a time. When all three are dead, climb the ladder on the right to collect the RED TEARSTONE RING, which increases your attack by 50% when you're health is at 20% or less. Note that this door can only be opened from the other side, in the New Londo Ruins.

Around the ledge where you fought the first enemy is another Wyvern guarding HUMANITY. Continue along the ledge to come upon an Undead Dragon.

BOSS: UNDEAD DRAGON

The Undead Dragon is a monster in melee combat, thanks to his sweeping claw attack and noxious breath. If you have only melee weapons, then go get your hands on some long-range magic, or a bow, or something, because fighting him at range is so much easier.

The thing about the Undead Dragon is that he can't move from the cliffside. Thus, you can safe stand just outside the reach of his breath and pelt him with arrows or spells. I recommend pyromancy or fire arrows from the female merchant in Undead Burg, as the dragon is weak to fire.

Xanthous Set (near exit of world, after beating Priscilla and Dark Phantom Jeremiah)

You can access this area from the lower floor of the church in Anor Londo, by lowering the rotating platform to complete the bridge and taking the stairs down to the church's lower entrance. To enter, you'll also need the Peculiar Doll, meaning that you must have returned to Undead Asylum to retrieve it. Be warned that once you enter the Painted World of Ariamis, you must complete the entire area to escape. Make sure you bring a bow and a good supply of arrows to fight the Undead Dragon.

Upon arriving, cross the bridge to reach the snow-capped mountain ahead. At the top of the stairs is a BONFIRE. Upstairs from here are three Zombies and a locked gate. Over by the stairs on your right, look for a body hanging from a rope, with the familiar glow of an item. Shoot the rope with an arrow to cause the body to drop, earning you its HUMANITY. Now go up the stairs. At the top are a few Zombies, but just around the corner are some Engorged Zombies, which explode in a toxic-inflicting blood splatter when killed. In the same place where they appear, you'll find a SOUL OF A PROUD KNIGHT.

Upstairs, there'll be a bridge to your right and a house on your left. Enter the house and go down to the basement to kill a couple of Snow Rats and pick up SOUL OF A BRAVE WARRIOR. Now go outside and circle back around this building to reach an alternate path, located at a junction before the appearance of the Engorged Zombies. You'll have to fight some Zombies to ascend to the roof of a building, where there's a corpse with a SOUL OF A PROUD KNIGHT. Two Crow Demons will probably attack you, but if you're lucky, they'll accidentally fly off the roof to their deaths while you're fighting them. Drop down from this roof to the balcony below for a DRIED FINGER.

Now head across the bridge to where a Zombie archer is shooting at you. Take him out, then turn your attention to the enemies approaching you. This building is filled with Engorged Zombies! You'll want to kill them with backstabs or fire to avoid their toxic suicide attack. Like with all groups of strong enemies, it can help to split them up too. If you get cornered in the area where the archer was, you can jump down to the basement from here to escape a sticky situation.

Back on the lower floor of this building, take the exit by the stairs we took previously. Outside is a LARGE SOUL OF A PROUD KNIGHT, but watch out for the Zombie who'll climb and attack you when you approach it. Now turn around and approach the tower ahead. Drop down and get behind the tower to collect SOUL OF A BRAVE WARRIOR. From here, you can jump across the chasm leading back to the basement to a safe landing platform that will take you back up to the second building's lower floor.

When you try to ascend the tower, Crow Demons will attack you. These enemies can punch you with their wings or fly toward you. Despite this, they're surprisingly slow, and you can easily get behind them and hit them during both of these attacks. At the top of the tower is RED SIGN SOAPSTONE. Drop down to the ledge beside the stairs for SOUL OF A BRAVE WARRIOR. On the bridge adjacent to the tower is an Undead Dragon. When you approach the bridge, the Undead Dragon will slide toward you and breathe poisonous breath in your direction.

BOSS: UNDEAD DRAGON

If you want to fight him in melee, the Undead Dragon's claws and vile breath will prove a daunting challenge. However, if you want to fight at range, you'll discover that the Undead Dragon has no ranged attacks, nor can he move from his resting place. In other words, if you have enough arrows and stand just outside his attack range, he's humorously easy. Watch out for his billowing breath, though; its range is longer than you think, and you can get trapped on the bottom level by it. Therefore, I recommend you shoot him from the stairs instead. The Undead Dragon has a weakness to fire damage, so pyromancy and fire-elemental projectiles will bring him down that much faster.

If you don't have any arrows, well, I did try to warn you at the beginning of this chapter. Surely you have some means of ranged attack? Pyromancy maybe? If you get close enough to avoid his breath, he'll attack with his claws and bite, the latter of which is highly deadly. You might be able to make melee work if you can dodge his attacks (good luck blocking). Really, though, it's an unnecessary burden to take upon yourself unless you have no other choice.

Upon being defeated, the Undead Dragon will drop 5000S and a DRAGON SCALE.

After slaying the dragon, you can pick up the LARGE SOUL OF A PROUD KNIGHT and the BLOODSHIELD from the bridge. The latter item has a special effect that increases your resistances to bleeding, poison, toxic, and curse, which will make it useful when you face foes with those types of attacks. A disgusting growth obstructs further passage across the bridge, so you'll have to return later. For now, head down the stairs leading to the tower basement. A locked door down here bars passage, so turn around and traverse the light on the opposite side.

In the next room, there is a large group of enemies called Phalanx, a throwback to an early enemy in Demon's Souls. Except they're pink and zombie-ish now... Anyway, the Phalanx have shields that will block all of your attacks, and their spears can be either stabbed at you or thrown, giving them considerable range. To defeat a Phalanx army like this one, get on one side of the army and block while the army focuses on you and throws spears at you. Then, when they're all facing you, run around to the back of the army and hit the monsters from behind while they slowly struggle to turn their gooey bodies around. After the battle, open the gate leading back to the bonfire.

In the graveyard, collect HUMANITY, then ascend the stairs to get the RING OF SACRIFICE on the wall. On the ramparts outside, you'll encounter numerous Zombies, but also numerous items: LARGE SOUL OF A PROUD KNIGHT and 2 SOULS OF A PROUD KNIGHT. Hidden in the corner by the city wall is the pyromancy, ACID SURGE. After taking thse items and coming to this location in Human Form, you will be invaded by a Dark Spirit: Xanthous King Jeremiah, a foe with a barbed whip and powerful pyromancy. Killing him will yield the BARBED WHIP, humanity, and quite a few souls.

The last thing to do is to go up the stairs leading up to a small doorway. On the left, there's a SOUL OF A PROUD KNIGHT guarded by four hidden Zombies. Ahead is the path leading down to the underground area. At first, it looks like this area is safe, but frankly, it's not. There are Wheel Skeletons in here, and each one can do a spinning attack that can guard break you and then kill you in one move. Dodge these wheeled monsters, then kill them while they recover. Obviously, you'll want to try to fight them one at a time. When all nine Wheel Skeletons are slain, you can recover SOUL OF A BRAVE WARRIOR and SOUL OF A PROUD KNIGHT.

Turn the crank to open the passage in the tower, then look for a dirt wall nearby an strike it to dispel it. This thin tunnel network is filled with Wheel Skeletons, which doesn't bode well for you. Lure them into junctions so that you can avoid them. The left path leads only to a Skeleton and a ladder to the well in the courtyard. The right path, obscured by more illusory walls, leads to a Skeleton and the ANNEX KEY, which will open the annex in the courtyard. The last path, the one forward, will lead to a Skeleton, and then to an Engorged Zombie who, when slain, will drop the FIRE SURGE pyromancy.

Now go back to the courtyard and find a small wooden door that can only be opened with the Annex Key. When you come out, turn around and head up the stairs toward an anrgy Engorged Zombie who shoot you with fire blasts. Knock him down, then fight any Crow Demons that land down here. After that, collect the VOW OF SILENCE miracle up here. Down the stairs leading to the tower, you can collect the MASK OF VELKA, BLACK CLERIC ROBE, BLACK MANCHETTE, and BLACK TIGHTS.

Back at the beginning of the annex area, head along the walkway and fight three Engorged Zombies, then collect the DARK EMBER at the bottom. Give this to Andre the next time you see him, as it will allow him to ascend divine weapons into occult weapons. From the same point, the right path (blocked with a breakable wooden wall) will lead to VELKA'S RAPIER.

When you're ready, head to the tower basement and go through the opened door onto the lower bridge. You'll fight several Zombies, and once you slay the last one in sight, four will climb up from below and ambush you. The greatest threat here, however, is a Heavy Knight with a greatsword, making his attacks powerful enough to easily shatter your guard. Keep your distance and wait for an opening to attack, then quickly back off. This enemies will respawn, and he will always drop Large Titanite Shards when killed, and sometimes a Tower Shield to boot. Traverse the white light to encounter Priscilla the Crossbreed and a ledge you can jump from to escape the Painted World.

BOSS: PRISCILLA THE CROSSBREED

If you don't want to fight Priscilla, don't attack her, and she won't hurt you. You can simply speak to her if you choose and then walk right past her to the exit. If you do want to battle, however, read on.

First off, use Priscilla's initial pacifism to get behind her with a powerful weapon and attack her tail as many times as you can before she becomes enraged. Hopefully, this will sever her tail, granting you PRISCILLA'S DAGGER. Otherwise, try to sever her tail during the fight.

Priscilla's main attack is to slice with her scythe, which inflicts bleeding. You'll take a significant chunk of damage if your bleeding bar fills up, so avoid getting hit. Try to dodge instead of blocking, as even then some bleeding damage can get through. Her next attack is a lethal mist blast that covers a wide area and deals strong unblockable damage. Don't stand in its area of effect, needless to say. Her last and most deadly trick is to turn invisible. She can continue to attack you while you are unable to lock on to block. Watch for her footprints in the snow, then approach her and hit her a few times to end the invisibility.

Defeating Priscilla will earn you many rewards: 30,000S, the SOUL OF PRISCILLA, and the achievement/trophy, "Defeat Crossbreed Priscilla." Jump from the ledge to leave the Painted World.

These infernal geckos were the bane of every Demon's Souls completionist. Certain rare ores were only dropped by these guys, and they could disappear forever if they escaped in certain cases.

To my knowledge, there is no item in this game that can only be received from Crystal Lizards. Furthermore, it seems that each Lizard will reappear if it escapes, as long as it does not die. It's well worth it to hunt down and kill these little guys, as they drop some very helpful upgrade materials. Here's a list of the places you can find Crystal Lizards, for your reference:

Undead Burg (barrel near white light barrier leading to Taurus Demon)

Darkroot Basin (near the slope opposite the Hydra in the waterfall)

The Catacombs (drop from bridge on right after pulling first lever)

The Catacombs x2 ("")

Tomb of the Giants (along the slope as you exit the darkness)

The Great Hollow x2 (jump down to the branch on the right just after the initial bonfire)

The Great Hollow x3 (follow the path around from the last area, random)

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